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« August 2005 | Main

September 27, 2005

Intel and Microsoft have promised to support Toshiba-led next generation DVD technology, HD DVD, in preference to Blu-ray DVD technology, which is backed by rival Sony.

HD DVD is being promoted by Toshiba, together with NEC, Sanyo and others, while backers of Sony's Blu-ray discs include Dell and Apple.

The next generation of DVDs will be able to store higher-quality data, including high-definition video. Discs will be able to hold approximately six times as much data as current DVDs.

Toshiba and Sony have been competing to secure support for their preferred disc formats from technology companies, studios and the games industry, to who the new technology will be of great importance. It will be more problematic if there are two competing standards of high-definition DVD technology for them to work with.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 games console will support Blu-ray, but Microsoft has not revealed whether the Xbox 360 will support HD DVD playback. It is anticipated that films in the high-definition format will be released for DVD later this year.

Intel, Microsoft and other companies have not previously committed themselves to a format in the hope that the two groups would find a common format, but there has been no agreement so far.

Blu-ray technology is promoted as being a more sophisticated technology with a greater storage capacity, while HD DVD technology will be less expensive and will be ready sooner.

Toshiba’s laptop with a next-generation HD DVD drive should be available by the start of next year in Japan.

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Utility consumer group Energywatch has warned that soaring energy prices are placing UK businesses of all sizes at risk. The group voiced its concerns at a meeting at the Labour party conference in Brighton.

Energywatch and business leaders called for the government to act to help lower
prices.

At the same meeting, the CBI said that firms could be forced to lay off staff and close down, this winter, if fears of a power shortage were realised.

Sir Digby Jones, head of the CBI said "inadequate" UK planning meant that the UK only had enough gas in reserve to supply companies for 11 days, compared to 55 in other European countries. The problem is not expected to affect domestic consumers.

Energy minister, Malcolm Wickes, said he would look into what could be done to increase power supplies.

In an interview with the BBC, David Workman, director general of glass manufacturers' organisation British Glass said: "If you compare prices in the first quarter of 2003 to the forecasts for the first quarter of 2006, prices are expected to increase by 166%".

He warned that companies might be forced to burn oil for power if supplies remained low, increasing costs further, and running the risk of further costs if they broke their emissions limits.

Under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), companies are given carbon dioxide emission limits, but they can also trade in the emerging European carbon market.

Allan Asher, chief executive of Energywatch said: "Every business - from the smallest corner shop to the largest factory - is suffering".

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Internet service provider PlusNet confirmed yesterday that it plans to unveil a broadband telephony service shortly. The company, which is based in Sheffield, said its PlusTalk VoIP service is based on open standards. Customers will be able to communicate for free with other open standards-based services.

PlusNet is confident that its tariffs for chargeable calls will be very competitive. The company said in a statement "PlusNet expects to offer a range of call packages at market leading prices."

There is speculation that the launch of the VoIP service is imminent. Even before the product has been unveiled PlusNet has reduced charges. There is intense competition in the rapidly-expanding VoIP sector, with BT planning to reduce charges and Dixons to launch its Freetalk service this week.

PlusTalk Evening & Weekend package will now cost £2.99 a month. This includes 3,500 free minutes and 15 MB voicemail allowance. It was previously priced at £3.99. PlusTalk Anytime - which includes 4,000 free minutes and 25 MB voicemail allowance - will cost £4.99 a month, instead of the previously planned £7.99 a month.

PlusNet is also planning a pay-as-you-go VoIP service, although its VoIP services are not available as standalone products and can only be used by PlusNet broadband customers.

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Google has overhauled its video search service and now allows users to plays back search results without the need to download a media player. The results play in a large video window within the browser, meaning that the service runs on Linux and Mac machines for the first time.

A brief description of the video clip is displayed next to the video window, including its length, the date it first appeared and a link to the originating website.

Google is airing Everybody Hates Chris – Chris Rock’s new comedy, to promote the service. Episodes will be available via Google all week prior to broadcast on Thursday.

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The Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC), has issued new guidelines warning that businesses are putting themselves at risk, by failing to capture essential evidence from their computer systems.

The guidelines, called the Directors and Corporate Advisors' Guide to Digital Investigations and Evidence, aims to address a knowledge gap among companies about computer forensics. The IAAC argues that a failure to preserve computer evidence makes criminal prosecutions against hackers more difficult and makes it less likely that firms will secure proper redress in the civil courts. It can also mean that they are unable to make proper insurance claims.

The report’s author, Peter Sommer says that the need for digital evidence is obvious when hacking, fraud and denial of service attacks have taken place but "It's also required when transactions are disputed, in employee disputes, and almost all forms of non-cyber crime, including murder, forgery, industrial espionage and terrorism. With the vast proliferation of computer ownership and usage plus the growth of low-cost always-on broadband connectivity, all organisations require a forensic readiness program."

Mr Sommer said that firms need a strategy in place to identify and preserve digital evidence, including emails and web transactions, together with an understanding of some of the associated legal problems such as admissibility and privacy.

The guide provides general management advice plus details of procedures, techniques, applicable law and sources of further information about computer forensics. It is available for free download from IAAC's website : http://www.iaac.org.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=65

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September 26, 2005

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), has warned that Chancellor Gordon Brown may have to raise taxes. The group said that "stealth taxes" equivalent to three pence on income tax could be introduced. The comments came after Mr Brown suggested that UK economic growth would be lower than the government had forecast.

Mr Brown had forecast that UK growth would be 3-3.5%, analysts, however believe that figure could now be 2.5% or less.

Speaking in Washington, Mr Brown said that difficult global economic conditions, the boom in oil prices a high house prices had all adversely affected the UK economy.

Although Mr Brown did not downgrade the Treasury's current official forecasts for growth, analysts have taken his comments as an indication that such a move may be necessary.

Douglas McWilliams, CEBR’s chief executive said the chancellor had failed to take notice of reports by some independent forecasters suggesting that the UK economy was slowing down.

He said: "While it is certainly true that high oil prices are likely to mean a weak economy in 2006, the current year's slowdown started just after Christmas and ought to have been staring the chancellor in the face when he made his forecasts for the March Budget".

Mr Brown told a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington on Saturday: "Britain is continuing to grow faster this year than the other major European economies, all of whom are forecast to grow by less than 2%, with just 1.2% growth in the euro area."

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According to a survey sponsored by Hostway, shoppers are starting to use blogs as guides to what they should and shouldn't buy. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said they consulted blogs before going shopping.

The blogs were considered to provide trustworthy information, because they are written by real people and based on actual experiences, and were therefore not subject to the same marketing pressures as commercial websites. The survey suggests that blogs could rival other media as a source of consumer information about products and services.

Paul Halfpenny, product manager at Hostway said that the information on blogs about consumer goods could reach a huge audience.

Those most likely to let opinions on blogs influence what they bought were in the 25-34 age group. Eighty-three percent of this group were influenced by blogs about their purchases.

The research also found that 49% of those surveyed thought blogs were as credible as articles in magazines, 46% thought web journals were as trustworthy as newspapers and 40% thought web logs and TV news programmes were as reliable as each other.

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Oracle has been refused permission in the UK to patent its method of converting a document from one mark-up language to another, partly because this would give Oracle too much control over sales of computer programs.

The method converted text from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) to another mark-up language, such as HTML. Although this conversion could be done by others, a lot of human input was required. Oracle filed for a patent in 2002.

Methods for performing mental acts and computer programs are not patentable in the UK. A patent examiner ruled that Oracle's invention fell into this category and was not patentable. Oracle appealed against the ruling at a hearing in August and Hearing Officer Stephen Probert published his decision this month.

Oracle argued that its invention was not about computer programming, but about establishing better rules for converting a document from one standard to another. It based its argument on the "little man" test which asks whether an artefact or process is new and non-obvious merely because there is a computer program; or would it still be new and non-obvious if the same decisions and commands could be taken and issued by a little man at a control panel, operating under the same rules? If the little man can do this, then the computer program is merely a tool, and the invention is not about computer programming.

Oracle argued that a little man could convert SGML to HTML by following the procedures in its patent, therefore the patent was not for a computer program.

The Hearing Officer said the little man test was inappropriate because the point of Oracle’s application was as a way of doing something by computer that would take a long time manually.

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UK mobile phone network O2 is to begin offering i-mode services on Saturday, 1 October. It will be available via four handsets, two from NEC and two from Samsung. According to DoCoMo, the creator of I-mode, they are the NEC N411i and N343i, and the Samsung S500i and Z320i. DoCoMo released the information prior to O2’s official launch of the service today.

NEC announced last week that it was to provide handsets and infrastructure technology for O2's i-mode service.

According to DoCoMo, the service will include content from approximately 100 websites, and will also feature i-mode mail. One of the key strengths of i-mode is that it remains connected to the Internet at all times, meaning that there is no need to dial up to connect. It will be available on O2's GPRS and 3G networks, and incorporate MMS compatibility. O2 is also planning to launch I-mode in the Germany, at a later date.

i-mode has achieved great success in Japan, but Europe has been less enthusiastic, possibly due to the popularity of text messaging and disappointment with WAP.

The UK will be the thirteenth territory to get an i-mode service. It is already available in Japan, Taiwan, Israel, Russia, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Greece.

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The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx, published his comments on the proposed European directive on data retention today. He is not fully convinced by the arguments for the directive, and sets out strict conditions any such law would have to meet for his office to find it acceptable.

If ratified the directive would require all Internet data to be held for six months and telephone call data for one year. It also demands that ISPs and telcos are compensated for their compliance costs. The legislation was proposed in the hope that the information could be used to prevent terrorism or to prosecute those accused of terrorist acts.

Mr Hustinx said that the Directive has a direct impact on the protection of privacy of EU citizens. He said it was vital that it should respect citizens’ fundamental rights, as settled by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and stressed that a legislative measure that would weaken the protection would be illegal.

He said from a data protection perspective, traffic and location date should not be retained at all for the purpose of law enforcement and stressed that retaining data for longer than the six or 12 months proposed in the Commission's draft version of the directive would not be acceptable. He highlighted the need for adequate safeguards to be established to protect personal data.

Mr Hustinx also said that the proposal would need the support of the European Council and the Parliament.

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September 23, 2005

A survey by PC World Business found that 44 percent of Britain's small and medium-sized businesses do not have a software licensing policy, leaving them open to legal and security problems.

PC World Business surveyed 750 IT managers of businesses with up to 500 employees. It found that 58 percent of small businesses do not keep records of software or ensure that software licence certificates are readily available if requested by software publishers.

Despite these findings, 87 per cent of businesses believe that they comply will legal requirements.

All standard software packages are sold with a licence, which specifies how many copies can be used. Companies failing to comply with the terms of the licence, by using making or selling illegal copies, can be sued by software publishers for piracy, an offence which carries an unlimited fine or a prison sentence.

The research also found that 67 per cent of businesses buy new software licences every time they purchase a new computer, when it is more cost-effective and efficient to purchase company-wide software licences, which cover a set number of machines.

Struan Robertson, editor of OUT-LAW.COM and an IT lawyer with Pinsent Masons, said: "Most businesses would never think of themselves as software pirates, but software mismanagement amounts to the same thing in the eyes of the BSA.”

The survey found that only 59% of British Businesses are aware of the existence of the BSA (Business Software Alliance), a global organisation that regulates software licensing. The organisation offers a reward of up to £10,000 for information on software piracy.

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Dixons is launching FreeTalk next week – its budget Internet phone service.

FreeTalk is similar to a service offered by VoIP company Vonage, which offers unlimited calls to landlines in the UK and Ireland for £9.99 a month. Dixons service, however, is cheaper at £6.99 a month, or £79.99 for a year. A phone adaptor enabling users to link their home phone to the broadband service will cost approximately £20.

Dixons will promote FreeTalk in its network of high street shops, with a major marketing drive when it is launched, possibly on Wednesday or Thursday.

The company may be hoping that FreeTalk will achieve the same success as its popular internet business Freeserve, which took the UK's ISP sector by storm when it launched in 1997.

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Dell and Oracle are strengthening their relationship through a bundling agreement and a grid project. The alliance was announced at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco.

Dell will provide PowerEdge servers, installed with Oracle's database, Real Application Clusters or Fusion Middleware. Customers will be offered the alternative option of JD Edwards applications or Oracle E-Business Suite.

Support packages for up to three years will be offered at the time of purchase, providing access to dedicated support staff at Dell and Oracle.

Customers will initially contact Dell if they have a problem, but if the problem is in the software and beyond the Dell team, the call will be passed to specialists at Oracle. This will mean that customers will not have to ring back and explain the problem all over again.

Dell is also collaboration with Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco on Project MegaGrid, which aims to provide a cost-effective alternative to large expensive servers and mainframes.

Kevin Kettler, Dell’s chief technical officer expects these systems to dominate the market in five years time, because of the reliability that clustering provides. If a system fails, the grid will continue to operate while repairs or replacements are made. The systems will run Oracle Database 10g over Windows on PowerEdge servers.

Dell will be the initial point of contact for customer service and queries will be seamlessly passed to the company best suited to handle the call. The systems are already available and will be priced according to processor, memory and storage requirements.

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Reporters Without Borders, the media watchdog, has released a handbook advising bloggers on how to protect themselves from recrimination and censors. It includes tips on how to set up a blog, publicise it and establish credibility. It also offers advice on writing blogs from countries with stringent media restrictions, including as Iran and China. The handbook was part-funded by the French government.

The booklet, called The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, includes advice from key international bloggers, experts and writers, including US journalist Dan Gillmor and Canadian net censorship expert, Nart Villeneuve.

Blogs, or weblogs, are becoming increasingly popular as a medium for people to publish their own thoughts on the Internet, and are a vital source of communication in countries where mainstream media is restricted. However, they are increasingly being targeted by strict authorities.

The handbook discusses how to blog anonymously and how to identify the most suitable way to avoid censorship. It also offers help on developing ethical and journalistic values.

Iranian authorities have been censoring mainstream media for some time, but they have now started to clamp-down on bloggers. According to campaign groups, at least two dozen Iranian bloggers have been jailed. In June, Microsoft's MSN Spaces site in China started to block blog entries which used words such as "freedom", "democracy" and "demonstration".

The blogger booklet can be downloaded from the Reporters Without Borders website in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian.

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A survey by Computer People, the recruitment company, found that most office workers find computer jargon as difficult to understand as a foreign language. Three quarters of workers waste more than an hour a week deciphering technical terms such as jpeg, javascript and cookies.

Computer people, which questioned 1,500 workers, says effective technology professionals "understand the need to tailor their levels of jargon".

The survey found that younger workers found computer language as difficult to understand as older workers.

The survey also highlighted other common computer-related problems. Just under two thirds of the workers surveyed had sent e-mails with large attachments which had blocked clients' systems. Over one in four people did not understand the purpose of a firewall, and were tempted to turn it off. A quarter of those surveyed had to ask for technical help to download information.

Mr Fletcher, managing director of Computer People, said: "We're finding that many clients are increasingly requiring professionals who have concise communication expertise as they recognise this improves company productivity in the long run."

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September 22, 2005

O2 and Argiva have launched a UK trial of technology that enables television to be viewed on mobile phones. The trial, with 400 people in Oxford, will test the technology that enables mobiles to receive direct TV signals.

People taking part in the trial will receive sixteen channels, including BBC One and Two, ITV 1 and 2, and Channel 4. TV is being promoted as the next phase of mobile entertainment – some shows are already available on Orange’s 3G network.

O2 and Arqiva have joined with Nokia and terrestrial and satellite broadcasters, for the six-month trial.

Although 3G networks can already be used to watch some TV channels, the Oxford trial will test more complicated technology, called DVB-H (digital video broadcasting – handheld). DVB-H is one of two formats or standards that global broadcasters and the mobile industry have been developing. It has been specifically designed for the broadcast of TV signals on mobiles and other handheld devices.

DVB-H enables mobiles, which have special requirements because of screen size and battery life, handle TV signals in real-time. It also allows broadcasters to send the same signals to multiple handsets.

People taking part in the Oxford trial will watch TV on the Nokia 7710 handset, a widescreen multimedia smartphone, which incorporates a receiver for TV signals. An on-screen guide will allow users to select programmes.

Mobile operators hope to start using mobile TV technology in time for next year's football World Cup in Germany.

According to technology consultancy Strategy Analytics, there could be 51 million mobile-TV users by 2009, generating approximately $6.6bn (£3.5bn) in revenue.

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Electronics company Sony is reducing staff headcount by 10,000 globally, as part of a restructuring programme. The job losses represent approximately 7% of the company's workforce and will be completed by March 2008.

Approximately 40 percent of the jobs losses will be Japan, with the remaining 60 percent from its overseas operations. The company will also close or sell 11 of its 65 manufacturing plants.

Sony has been losing ground in key markets following the launch of rival products, such as Apple's iPod. It has also been adversely affected by the move from traditional cathode-ray tube televisions to flat screens.

The company expects a group net loss of 10bn yen ($90 million) in the current fiscal year. Over the past five years, Sony shares have lost two thirds of their value. In Thursday's trading, its share price fell 2.2%.

Sony is the world's second-largest consumer electronics maker, behind Matsushita, and employs 151,400 workers in 80 countries across the world. The restructuring plan follows the appointment in March of UK-born Sir Howard Stringer as the group’s chief executive.

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BT has revealed details of its new network division - BT Openreach - which will provide equal access to its phone network. Openreach will employ 30,000 people including 25,000 engineers and will come into operation in January 2006.

When it is established, Openreach will have assets of approximately £8bn and revenues of over £4bn. In order to keep it separate from the rest of BT, it will have its own HQ and brand identity.

BT Openreach chief, Steve Robertson, said in a statement: "The local BT network is one of the UK's most important assets and my role is to ensure everyone has equal access to it."

BT has created the new division as part of a regulatory settlement with Ofcom, under which the telecoms company agreed to "substantive structural, product and governance changes, affecting both its current and future networks”, in order to avoid the risk of being broken up.

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Microsoft is preparing to incorporate Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a popular XML technology used in blogs, in the next edition of its Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Microsoft is putting RSS into Office 12, enabling Outlook users to subscribe to feeds that are then fed into their email in-box. Outlook will allow users to search and store feeds in folders, apply rules, and incorporate feeds into other Office applications.

The company is also using RSS in its SharePoint Portal. Document libraries and lists will get a corresponding RSS feed that users can subscribe to and receive as updates.

At the Professional Developers' Conference (PDC) last week, Chris Caposella, vice president for Microsoft's information worker product management group, said RSS would be transformed into a platform that embraces business applications.

Turning applications, including calendar and contacts, into RSS feeds will support Microsoft's objective of integration between Office with back end servers and enabling more dynamic access to different types of data.

Microsoft’s RSS-enablement of its business applications supports the launch of Windows Vista in 2006, which will feature an RSS store to identify and store feeds.

Microsoft believes that putting an RSS store into the operating system will promote innovation by companies currently distributing RSS aggregators. The incorporation of RSS into Microsoft’s applications will enable aggregators to focus on value-added features, such as creating better search and watch lists.

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British Midland and TAP Air Portugal are planning to allow passengers to use their mobile phones while they are in the air.

Both airlines will use base-station technology developed by OnAir, which is backed by Airbus and is a rival to Boeing-backed Connexion. OnAir uses Siemens’ pico-cell base-stations together with software from TriaGnoSys.

The companies plan to install the equipment in 2006, initially on only a couple of aircraft, and launch a trial late in the year. TAP Air Portugal will use OnAir on its single-aisle Airbus 321, and BMI on the Airbus 320.

BMI will target the service at business and leisure travellers from London’s Heathrow airport, travelling to European destinations including Manchester, Belfast, Edinburgh, Paris and Amsterdam. Travellers will be able to use all GSM and GPRS handsets, including Blackberry devices.

Passengers will only be able to use their phones from 10,000ft - they will still not be able to use wireless devices during take off and landing. Rates will be in line with current international roaming charges according to OnAir.

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September 21, 2005

Start-up company Akimbi Systems, has revealed Slingshot – software that can take a snap shot of a server environment, store hardware and software configurations. It is claimed it can also automatically roll back the configurations to a pool of machines for testing with specific new applications.

The company claims that development costs can be reduced by up to 50 per cent by automating this stage in the application development cycle.

The software removes the need to manually configure servers and runs on top of virtual machine (VM) software from Microsoft and VMsoftware.

Slingshot works with application lifecycle management (ALM) testing tools from Mercury Interactive, IBM/Rational, Microsoft, Borland Software and Segue Software, by connecting with the Slingshot APIs via a SOAP interface.

At the VM level, Akimbi has ensured that multiple testing environments can run side by side in server pools, through its ability to redirect packets, create a hidden VM and also update routing tables to avoid problems like IP conflicts. Slingshot is based on a VM architecture Akimbi acquired from Ensism.

Akimbi is talking to software tool companies about possible partnership agreements. The company’s development work at the architecture level is expected to deter test tool vendors from trying to develop rival products.

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The Authors Guild, a US writers' group, together with writers Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles and Daniel Hoffman, is suing Internet search engine Google, over its plans to digitise major library book collections. The plaintiffs claim the plan infringes author copyright and have filed a lawsuit seeking damages, class action status and an injunction against further infringements.

Google claims its plan to organise the world's information and make it more universally accessible and useful, would benefit writers. It plans to invest $200m (£110m) into creating a digital archive of millions of books from the libraries of Stanford, Michigan and Harvard universities, and of the New York Public Library, by 2015. It is also digitising out-of-copyright books from the UK's Oxford University.

Google has asked for more talks and has temporarily stopped scanning copyrighted texts until November to listen to concerns about the plan.

The law-suit against Google is part of a campaign by the action by the Authors Guild to stop third-parties abusing the rights of authors not simply with unauthorised distirbution, but also unauthorised storage of copyrighted works.

Although Google has said copyright holders who contact the company and ask for their books to be withheld from the project will be respected, the company has come under heavy fire for effectively treating copyright law as an opt-in process, rather than automatic right.

The Authors Guild complaint says: "(Authors), not Google, have the exclusive rights to... authorize such reproduction, distribution and display of their works".

Google claims its project "directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing awareness of and sales of the books in the programme".

However, Google have yet to comment on claims that it would seek to mainly use the content of copyrighted works to display its own AdSense for the benefits of its own advertisers.

NOTE: For personal commentary on this story, see Google Print fails to honour writers rights

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September 20, 2005

At a meeting for investors and analysts, Vodafone said it is planning to expand through acquisitions in Asia Poland and France. It hopes to increase its near 20% stake in Poland's Polkomtel and its 44% stake in France's second-largest telecoms group SFR.

The group plans to continue to focus on turning around its struggling Japanese business and will look for opportunities in Asia.

The number of subscribers to Vodafone’s 3G service increased to 4.35 million in August, up one million from July. The company expects 10 million customers to be using 3G services by the end of the fiscal year to April.

Vodafone plans to attract customers in the run-up to the key Christmas trading season by offering 15 new types of 3G handsets. It also plans to launch a faster version of 3G - which allows users to download images and videos more quickly - in the first half of 2006.

Vodafone’s chief executive, Arun Sarin, said: "Frankly in the next six months, we can expect great competition from the Telefonicas in Spain and the T-Mobiles in Germany and DoCoMO and 'au' in Japan".

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According to the biannual Symantec Threat Report, malicious hackers are starting to target Voice over IP (Voip) systems. The report predicts that within 18 months, Voip will start to be used as a "significant" attack vector.

Callers can make significant cost savings by using Voip to make some of their calls via the net, instead of through old-fashioned phone lines. However the report says that routing phone calls via the net, opens a series of security risks including:

· audio spam that blocks voicemail boxes with spoken adverts
· voice phishing that aims to trick people into disclosing confidential details
· caller-ID spoofing which makes it appear that a fraudulent call comes from a legitimate number, such as a bank
· call hi-jacking that re-directs calls to criminals

The report suggests that Voip could result in the re-introduction of old hacking techniques, such as war-dialling - making large numbers of phone calls to find out which ones responded with a data tone.

The report highlights a number of other computer security threats that continue to be a problem such as stripped down worms, viruses and Trojans. Once installed, the programs contact a server and download new parts. This causes more damage to the computer hosting them or other machines on that network.

Bot herds - networks of compromised PCs under the control of a malicious hacker – are used to launch other types of attack.

Symantec researched identified an increase in denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which bombard target machines with so much data that they cannot cope. On average, 927 DoS attacks are being carried out every day.

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To mark its entry into the mobile music sector, Orange is launching a new smartphone - the SPV C550.

The device runs Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, but Windows Mobile 5.0 is expected to be shortly available in a smartphone. It has already made its PDA debut in the O2 XDA Exec and Orange plans to launch a rival product, the SPV M5000, soon.

On the plus side, the C550 addresses a number of problems found in its predecessor, the C500. Some core specifications have been updated, helping to maintain Orange's position as a leading UK Windows smart-phone provider.

The C550’s music functions are controlled by four buttons directly above the number pad marked back, pause/play, forward and a button identified with a musical note. The musical note button launches Orange's Music Player, to download tunes from Orange's online service. The setting can be changed so that this button launches Windows Media Player.

Above these four buttons are two softmenu keys, a back button and a Home key that takes you directly back to Orange's Home screen.

Below the music button sits a number pad, which includes Start Call and End Call keys and a joystick for navigating.

On the left edge is a volume rocker, on the top infrared port and power button, and on the right edge a button for the built in camera. A new key, not found on the C500, is a key for Internet Explorer.

There are two connectors on the bottom edge - a mini USB slot to link to a PC for data synchronisation and a 2.5mm headphone jack.

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LogicaCMG is acquiring French reseller Unilog for €930.3m(£630.6m) and will issue shares to pay for it.

Logica plans to buy 32.3% from "certain members of the management of Unilog and others for a total of €255.4m in cash and the issue of 19, 572, 703 new Consideration Shares."

It hopes to acquire the remaining 67.7% by offering shareholders 73 euros in cash for each share. This represents an 11.5% premium on the share price.

The merger will create a combined company with 27,000 employees and a turnover of approximately 2bn euros in 2004. It will be placed fourth in France and in the leading ten IT service providers across Europe. The merger will create a platform whereby the combined group will be able to develop its business in Germany.

The merger is expected to create synergies of £19m for the year ending December 31 2007.

The contract is subject to approval by shareholders and the regulator. There will be an Extraordinary General Meeting 13 October and the shareholder offer is expected to close by year end.

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Microsoft has announced changes to its licensing and maintenance scheme for larger customers, known as Software Assurance.

From March 2006, the benefits offered by Software Assurance will be extended. In addition to automatic upgrades and spread payments, Desktop Deployment Services will offer help, consultants and planning for upgrades.

Customers will receive Windows Vista Enterprise, which provides encryption and makes integrating different languages easier. Customers with over 30,000 licenses will receive "an additional number of training vouchers".

Software assurance, or licensing 6.0, was introduced in 2002 and was updated last year. Sales increased significantly after its introduction, as companies renewed their old agreements rather than sign up to the three-year agreements. The service offered guaranteed upgrades during the life of the contract, although this was not seen as an advantage by many companies.

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Protection and Privacy Commissioners at the 27th International Conference of Data, passed a declaration calling for the United Nations to prepare a legally binding instrument, clearly setting out in detail, the rights to data protection and privacy as enforceable human rights.

The declaration was adopted at the conference in Montreux, last week, with support from 40 countries. In the ‘Montreux Declaration’, the commissioners also call for governments to encourage the adoption of legislation that upholds recognised data protection principles. They ask for this to be extended to their mutual relations; and for the Council of Europe to invite non-member states of the organisation to ratify the Convention for the protection of individuals in respect of the automatic processing of personal data and its additional protocol.

International organisations have been asked to give a commitment to adhere to data protection rules; international non-governmental organisations have been asked to devise data protection standards; and hardware and software manufacturers have been asked to incorporate privacy-enhancing technologies into their products and systems.

Details of the nature of the legally-binding instrument to be adopted by the UN have not been clarified. According to Swiss data-protection commissioner Hanspeter Thür, it could be a text adopted by the UN in the same way as human-rights provisions.

Progress in the implementation of the objectives will be regularly monitored. The first assessment will be carried out at the 28th International Conference, due to take place in September 2006 in Argentina.

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Opera Software has withdrawn advertising banners from the free version of its Opera browser software. The ad-free, full-featured version is available for download at www.opera.com

The free-browser was previously only available with an advertising banner. Users could have this removed for the payment of a licensing free, which also gave them premium support. Between one to three per cent of users purchased this licence, providing a revenue stream for Opera’s PC business. Other revenue streams, of approximately equal value were provided from search engines and the sale of ads. Opera will continue to sell premium support at the reduced rate of €24 per year.

Jon S. von Tetzchner, chief exec of Opera Software, said: "Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser".

Opera expects the move to significantly increase its market share, thereby pulling in more revenues from search engines. This is expected to more than offset loss of income from licensing over the long term. Opera's PC software business produces roughly half the income of its devices (set-top box and mobile) operation.

Opera's browser provides additional features to those available on IE or Firefox. It lets users start from where their last browsing session ended or to save their entire session. It also includes security features to protect against phishing attacks.

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According to NEC, O2’s technology partner, O2 will launch its i-mode service in the autumn. There is speculation that this could be as early as next week.

O2, the mobile phone network, announced it had licensed i-mode in November 2004, suggesting a launch in the second half of 2005 for the mobile Internet service's introduction in the UK and Ireland.

NEC revealed that O2 will use its Mobile Internet Platform gateway as the foundation for the new service. I-mode is a key factor in O2’s strategy to increase its share of the mobile data market and to boost the average revenue it makes from each of its customers. The company currently makes over 25 percent of its revenue from data services.

O2’s i-mode service will operate alongside its O2 Active offering, on both 2.5G and 3G networks. i-mode handsets will be sourced from NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Siemens (now BenQ) and Motorola.

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Supermarket retailer Tesco is creating 7,500 new jobs after pre-tax profits increased by 18.7% to £908m, in the 24 weeks to 13 August. The record figure beat economist’s forecasts of £886m. Tesco’s sales rose by 14.1% to £18.8bn, with UK same-store sales up 8.2%.

Tesco's share of the grocery market has grown to approximately 30.5% from 28.1% a year ago, according to research group TNS. Overseas sales are growing, but around 80% of revenue is still generated at home.

While the slowdown in UK consumer spending has had little impact on Tesco, soaring oil prices have contributed to higher costs. The company warned that oil-related costs could be up to £60m above budget this year.

Tesco is continuing to benefit from its strategy to add non-food ranges, including clothing, home entertainment and mobile phones, which have helped it gain market share from other High Street retailers.

Home entertainment sales increased by 17% in the first half, consumer electronics by 20% and health and beauty products by 11%. At the start of the second quarter, UK like-for-like sales were 7.6% higher - 6.6% excluding petrol sales.

Tesco’s dominance of the UK market has been widely criticised. Friends of the Earth has called on the UK Competition Commission to investigate the company’s position, claiming its practices have put many UK farmers out of business and also created problems for overseas suppliers.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has expressed concern that Tesco’s success is achieved at the expense of small firms.

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The UK's budget deficit narrowed to £4.8bn in August 2005, compared to £6.6bn in August 2004, after higher tax receipts exceeded spending.

August public sector net borrowing was the lowest for three years, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Borrowing in the fiscal year so far, however is still higher than in 2004 and it is uncertain if full-year forecasts will be achieved.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown estimates that public borrowing in the 2005/06 financial year will not exceed £31.9bn. However, borrowing already stands at £20.8bn – significantly higher than the £18.6bn recorded at the same point last year.

The August borrowing figure of £4.8bn beat analysts' forecasts of £6bn. It was also better than £6.57bn in August 2004. Jonathan Loynes, chief UK economist at Capital Economics said: "August's UK public finances figures are, for once, rather better than expected".

The Centre for Economics and Business Research now expects the Chancellor to revise his £32bn year forecast upwards to approximately £40bn, in the Pre-Budget Report this autumn. Although this would represent an overshoot of £7bn, it is a substantial improvement on recent forecasts.

The CEBR said: "Two months ago a purely statistical projection would have implied public sector borrowing for the financial year to £60bn".

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September 16, 2005

Saas - Software as a Service - is a platform on which applications can be built, with a web-based interface. This allows companies to purchase the rights to use applications on-demand, rather than having to buy hardware or software to disseminate the applications within their corporate networks.

Proponents of SaaS claim it provides better value to customers than the traditional method of purchasing software licences and then installing and managing software and upgrades themselves.

Salesforce.com is one of the main driving forces behind the development of SaaS, and whose first application was CRM and it now holds approximately 50% of the on-demand market for CRM applications.

Salesforce has gone on to develop further services, including a platform for facilitating integration with back-end technology used in companies and a toolkit for expanding and customising software. It has also built a network of partners to support companies with implementation and further development of applications.

This month Salesforce.com has launced AppExchange - a web-based portal that gives companies access to a range of applications for on-demand use, including financial and administrative applications and applications geared to the needs of specific industries.

AppExchange is based on the premise that the internet provides a more dynamic environment for accessing services than traditional means of distributing software. It allows customers to browse a wider range of computing products than would be practical in a high-street computing store. They can also read product reviews and check how other users rate the product.

Companies that do not wish to commit IT budgets and resources to installing and managing software should benefit from the service.

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The British Computer Society (BCS) has entered into an agreement with the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), to provide a fast-track route for PCG members.

The alliance is a key move in a campaign by the BCS to make IT a more professional profession.

According to Simon Juden, PCG’s chairman, there is increasing demand from clients and employers for professional accreditation. He said: "The professional status of freelancers, consultants and contractors is becoming an important differentiator and we encourage all PCG members to invest in building their technical and business credentials".

The scheme will allow PCG members to upgrade an existing standard BCS membership and will also allow entry at Professional level.

A survey of PCG members found that 25 per cent are already members of the BCS. The BCS promises to process applications by PCG members for Chartered membership within four weeks.

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Nintendo unveiled the controller for its new Revolution game console at the Tokyo Game Show.

Nintendo’s head, Satoru Iwata, demonstrated a one-handed wireless controller, visually similar to a TV remote control. Motion sensors on the controller translate its movements into action in the game, allowing it to be used as a virtual sword, baseball bat or racket. It can also produce more delicate movements.

Nintendo has not yet revealed details about the Revolution's hardware.

Mr Iwata said the controller was similar in design to a remote control because that device was familiar to so many people. During his keynote address at the show he said: "Its intuitive form allows both experienced and new gamers to stand on the same starting line".

The Revolution controller and console are designed to attract new users to gaming, including those people who are deterred by the fast pace of existing games. The innovative wireless sensor-studded controller is a move away from the traditional two-handed device studded with buttons.

During Mr Iwata’s speech, a demonstration showed the controller being used by players to conduct an on-screen orchestra, play a virtual musical instrument and use an in-game dentists' drill. It can be used one-handed or can be fitted with an extension cord that links it to a thumb-controlled joystick.

Nintendo's Revolution console will be released in 2006 but is expected to appear after launches by rivals Microsoft and Sony.

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T-Mobile UK has admitted that its customers are unable to access external email even when they purchase email-enabled phones from the service provider.

Unlike most other mobile operators in the UK, T-Mobile operates a "walled garden" that means customers cannot freely access external email accounts with its service.

Many people have upgraded to the latest smartphones, so that they can access their normal email accounts while on the move. However, T-Mobile will only allow external email to be accessed through its MDA line of Windows-based PDAs, or its Blackberry devices. This involves the payment of an additional fee to RIM, which owns Blackberry.

T-Mobile does not tell customers purchasing the other T-Mobile, email-capable phones on the market, that they will not be able to access email. When customers complain, they are advised to contact either the phone manufacturer or their ISP, to recover settings that will enable them to gain access to their email.

These companies, however, advise customers that it is an issue with T-Mobile and direct them back to T-mobile customer services, where they receive the same information as before.

It is believed that T-Mobiles systems are not currently capable of the data exchange required to access external emails. The systems are being upgraded and the situation should be rectified within the next six months.

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MasterCard Europe and Advanced Payment Solutions (APS) are launching a payment card in the UK, which will help people who are unable to secure credit. The launch is scheduled for 21 September.

The card will work in a similar way to pre-paid mobile phones. Holders will charge up the card with money before they use it. They will then be able to use the card for cash withdrawals and to purchase goods and services, both online and in High Street stores.

The card will be targeted at the two million households in Britain that do not have a current account or savings account. According to market analyst Datamonitor, approximately 50% of the UK adult population does not have a credit card.

Pre-paid cards can be used without a bank account, and because they are charged up with funds in advance, the holder will not fall into debt by using the card, or incur interest charges.

Phil Davies, director of business development at MasterCard Europe said: “Fuelling the growth of prepay cards is essential to realising our vision of a truly cashless society".

Similar cards have already been launched successfully in the US.

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Independent International Investment Research (IIIR), a small UK company listed on Aim that develops financial research products, is planning to launch legal action against Google.

IIIR claims that Google’s use of the term “Gmail” for its free web-based e-mail service infringes on its use of the term for a service offered by one of its subsidiaries.

IIIR says that this subsidiary, Pronet, has been using a service called “Gmail” since May 2002. IIIR contacted Google about the issue soon after the internet search company launched its “Gmail” service in April 2004, but that they have not been able to make a settlement.

Google has confirmed that they were contacted about the claim, but a spokeswoman claimed that they have been provided with no evidence that IIIR has priority on the use of the term.

Shane Smith, chairman and chief executive of IIIR, has said that he has been contacted by three companies offering financial backing for the suit. Discussions concerning that possible backing, in return for a share of the trademark sales if the suit is successful, have not yet been held.

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September 15, 2005

Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell announced formal approval for the switch-over from analogue to digital television. Viewers on the ITV borders region will have their existing TV signals switched off in three years. Switch over for other UK regions will follow in stages, ending in 2012.

According to media regulator Ofcom, approximately 63% of households in the UK already have digital television, an increase from 61.9% in the previous quarter. The total number of households with digital television is now 15,715,178.

After the switch-over, the analogue spectrum could be sold off for other uses. Switching off the analogue will mean that all televisions and video recorders will have to be connected to a digital receiver to work. Many people may also require a new aerial.

When the analogue signal is switched off, everyone will be able to access all the digital services through an aerial. Currently only 73% of households have access and only 80% can watch Five.

Ms Jowell said that households with at least one person over 75 and people with a significant disability, will qualify for help to access equipment needed for the switch. This support will be funded by the BBC through the licence fee.

David Sinclair, policy manager at Help the Aged, welcomed the announcement, but said that in a recent survey, 57% of older people still saw digital television as a threat. He said the government must promote digital television in easy-to-understand terms and manufacturer must develop easily accessible technology and services.

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Centrica, which owns British Gas, is planning to dispose of its OneTel telecoms business in order to focus on its energy operations. It will use the cash from the sale of OneTel to invest in this business.

In a statement, the company said: "Although the ability to offer a telecoms solution to our customers remains important, as part of focusing our capital and resources on energy and related home services we have now commenced the process to dispose of the Onetel business."

Speculation that Centrica was planning to sell OneTel started at the weekend, when it was rumoured that the company had already been contacted by potential buyers. However, according to a spokeswoman for OneTel, the company is not involved in any active discussions, although trade and financial buyers have shown an interest in the past.

OneTel has 1.4m fixed line customers and 1.7m customers including mobile and business users. Turnover for the first six months of the year increased 24 per cent to £162m, including increased revenue from recent acquisitions and the incorporation of British Gas phone customers into the OneTel business.

Despite this increase in revenue the combined telecoms business recorded a loss of £2m in the first half, compared to a break-even position 12 months earlier.

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Palm is expected to launch the successor to its Tungsten T5 PDA next month, a device described as Tungsten X.

Tungsten X resembles a standard T5, but has darker keys. It is believed to comprise a 312MHz Intel XScale processor, 128MB of Flash memory, a 320 x 480 display, Bluetooth wireless connectivity and an SD IO slot. The CPU speed and the memory capacity are both lower than the T5's 416MHz and 256MB, suggesting that if X is a T5 replacement, Palm is trying to differentiate between the Tungsten line and the LifeDrive.

The Tungsten X is also believed to include Wi-Fi support. If so, the slower CPU and reduced memory may be a strategy to control the price. It is believed to have been priced at $299 - $50 less than the T5 and $200 less than the LifeDrive.

It is rumoured that the T5 is to be discontinued and its replacement will be distributed on 11 October. Palm has traditionally introduced new Tungstens in October each year, ever since the first model was launched in October 2002.

Palm is also launching a new, low-end machine, believed to be called the Zire 22. It appears to be an update to the current Zire 21, replacing its monochrome screen and 8MB of RAM with a colour display and 32MB of memory. A price of $99 is expected, exactly what Palm currently charges for the Zire 21.

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In future the heads of information security functions are more likely to be business managers than technical staff, according to Paul Proctor, research vice president at Gartner’s Information Security Group. Speaking at Gartner’s IT Security Summit in London on Wednesday, Mr Proctor said companies would take a more strategic approach that balances IT security threats against business drivers.

Gartner expects information security to become an element in a wider risk management strategy. It believes that the scenario of security staff blocking projects without considering the wider picture will disappear.

Mr Proctor said that large organisations grow by having developed an understanding of risk, and accepting it when if offers a business advantage. He said: "Business lives by risk. But the concept of 'acceptable risk' is an oxymoron to many security professionals".

He said that future risk management officers will be experts in communication and project management skills, and are more likely to be trained in business than technical skill. This will leave technical staff unable to rise beyond a certain position in their company unless they get a business degree.

Mr Proctor said: “Business people also need to adapt and realise the security cannot be achieved by technology and needs to be built into a corporate culture. This will require cultural, behavioural, procedural and technical change”.

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Kingfisher, which owns DIY chain B&Q, is closing 22 B&Q stores due to what it describes as the "toughest" market conditions for years. The company also plans to reduce the size of a further 16 B&Q stores, converting them to a mini-Warehouse format and marketing the space saved to other retailers. The consumer slowdown has seriously impacted sales of DIY goods, causing B&Q to launch a cost-reduction strategy with the loss of 400 office jobs earlier this month.

Kingfisher’s profits for the six months to 30 July fell to £250.8m, compared with £287.6m last year. Like-for-like sales at B&Q were down 7%.

It was not specified which stores would close, but the company said they would be in markets "already well served by other B&Q stores". Kingfisher will incur a one-off charge of £200m to cover the costs of the store changes and job losses.

Spending has slowed both in the UK and the French DIY market. In France it is growing at its slowest rate for eight years.

The company said: "Rising unemployment caused demand to soften, whilst price deflation and increased competition had a further impact on DIY like-for-like sales (in France)".

Although like-for-like sales at Kingfisher’s French businesses grew 1%, its main Castorama home improvement chain recorded a 3.2% decline in same-store sales.

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September 14, 2005

186k, the business ISP, has acquired London-based provider Mailbox Internet. It is rumoured that the acquisition cost around £2m.

Mailbox Internet, which is based in Fulham, is one of the UK’s oldest ISPs. It was a finalist in the best business broadband category of the UK's "ISPA" awards for two consecutive years. Mailbox employs 16 people and provides broadband services to approximately 10,000 business users in London and the south of England.

186k has acquired Mailbox as part of a strategy to expand in the UK by acquiring established ISPs. Over the last year it has bought Northern-based Elite Internet Services and also acquired a major stake in Middlesborough-based Onyx Internet.

Dominic Marrocco, head of 186k said: "The acquisition of Mailbox Internet will provide a key gateway to allow a greater penetration of 186k's services within the heart of London and Southern England."

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O2 UK has released details of the O2 XDA Exec, the company’s own-brand version of HTC's Universal 3G clamshell smart phone.

XDA Exec is based on Windows Mobile 5.0 and incorporates 802.11b Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 1.2 and GPRS connectivity in addition to 3G. It incorporates a 520MHz Intel XScale PXA272 processor; 64MB of RAM; 128MB of Flash ROM; 3.6in, 65,536-colour, 640 x 480 display; SDIO slot for expansion; and a 1.2 megapixel camera with flash, alongside a second video-call camera.

The Exec's 1620mAh removable battery provides sufficient charge for four hours' 3G talk time, eight hours' tri-band GSM talk time, 15 hours' usage as a PDA and 250 hours' stand-by time.

Orange is also shortly expected to release an own-brand version of the Universal - the SPV M5000, while i-mate has already released the Jasjar and T-Mobile Germany has released the MDA Pro.

The O2 XDA Exec will be priced at around £400, depending on the monthly contract and tariff selected.

O2 has also announced the XDA SP, a tri-band candy-bar smart phone based on Windows Mobile 2003 Smartphone Edition Second Edition. The price of the XDA SP has not been disclosed.

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According to a report, IPTV: Broadband meets broadcast by London-based Lovelace Consulting, TV will become more like the web as IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is introduced within the next ten years. The report says that IPTV, the delivery of digital television and other audio and video services over broadband data networks using the same basic protocols that support the internet, will "transform television". Traditional scheduled broadcast channels will be replaced by a choice of "millions of programmes" available on-demand or for download.

Dr William Cooper, co-author of the report, believes that the disruptive power of the internet will be used to change the form and function of television. Mr Cooper said: "Broadband television will ultimately adopt the attributes of the web, providing access to an almost limitless selection of programmes."

Graham Lovelace, the co-author of the report said: "In this new and massively fragmented environment, control will flow from the supplier to the consumer, as viewers construct their personalised schedules from a vast array of international providers, and watch programmes whenever and wherever they want."

A report published in August by analysts at Informa Telecoms & Media suggested that the global IPTV market would be worth $10bn by 2010. It said there are currently around 2.5m IPTV subscribers, but this figure is expected to grow tenfold to 25m by 2010.

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Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that the number of people unemployed increased by 12,000 to 1.42 million in the quarter to August, the seventh consecutive monthly rise. The number of people claiming benefit increased 1,600 to 866,200 last month. Average job vacancies in the three months to August fell 7,400 to 631,700.

The level of unemployment has gradually increased this year, as a slowdown in consumer spending has adversely affected retailers and other service sector firms. According to the ONS, the number of people claiming benefit was 52,400 higher in August than in January. Jobless rates have risen every month this year - the longest continuous period of increase for 13 years.

Despite this, employment levels remain higher than at any time since comparable records began in 1971.

In the three months to the end of July, 28.73 million people, or 74.8% of the working age population, were employed. This is 315,000 more than at the same time last year.

However, annual growth in average earnings has slowed slightly. Excluding bonuses, average salaries increased by 3.9% in July, compared with a 4% increase in June. Taking bonuses into account, earnings growth increased from 4.1% to 4.2%.

According to economists, the figures indicate that the labour market is stabilising after signs of weakness earlier this year.

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Google is launching a website that enables users to search web journals or blogs. The site’s database will index all weblogs not just the ones published on the Google-owned blog writing site Blogger. At the moment the index contains blog postings from June 2005 but Google is looking at ways to index older posts. The site will search for specific journals, authors or posts.

Technorati, the blog search and indexing site, estimates that there are over 17 million webblogs, most of which are regularly updated journals that reflect the particular interest of the author. The have rapidly grown in popularity as tools that make it easy to put them together have been developed.

Google will index all blogs that publish ‘feeds’ that automatically tell readers when they are updated. It will also gather data about blogs that tell other indexing sites about the entries they have made.

The site will allow users to search via a dedicated blog search page and also via a special box on the web-journal writing site.

Dave Sifry, founder and boss of Technorati, welcomed Google to the blogosphere via a message on Technorati’s company blog. He said Google’s search site was a "validation" of the blog writing phenomenon. Mr Sifry said he expected Google to start indexing all the text of weblogs, rather that just the partial text found in feeds.

Google is not the first to provide a blog search tool - as well as Technorati other search sites such as Memeorandum also catalog web entries.

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September 13, 2005

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK consumer price index (CPI) inflation increased to 2.4% in August from 2.3% in July, mainly due to the increased cost of petrol, which contributed approximately 0.08 percentage points. August’s figure is the highest CPI level since current records began eight years ago and is the second month running that inflation has been higher than the government’s 2% target.

Headline retail price inflation (RPI), which includes housing costs, decreased from 2.9% to 2.8% year-on-year, while the underlying rate of RPI fell to 2.3% from 2.4% in July.

Despite the increase in CPI, some analysts believe the Bank of England could still afford to cut interest rates from the current level of 4.5%, as the 'core' level of inflation - which gives the year-on-year figure - is 1.7%, down from 1.8% in July.

The reduction in the core rate of inflation is due to lower prices for products such as DVDs, CDs, theatre and live music tickets and package holidays.

While CPI was pushed up by petrol prices, other factors also had an upward impact, including the price of clothing and footwear. There was a small downward effect from housing, household services and furniture, where summer sales usually held in July were being delayed until August.

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The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has achieved significant success with its “Wipe it Out” campaign to eliminate the downloading of illegal material in the workplace.

The campaign was launched in May, following the introduction of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) 2003. At the time, a survey of 200 IT managers found that many IT managers were unsure of the correct course of action to take, if they found illegal material on their servers.

Three quarters of those surveyed said they would not report employees who downloaded indecent images of children to the police. Forty percent of companies said they would not dismiss or even discipline an employee caught downloading illegal content.

Following the "Wipe it Out" campaign, the IWF says that sixty percent of IT experts are now up to date and aware of changes to the law.

IWF chief executive, Peter Robbins, said: "We are very pleased to see such increased levels of awareness of the IWF and the work we do.
"IT Managers and CEO's should feel reassured this legislation is in place to help them operate within the law, protect their employees and company and help to minimise criminal activities such as viewing and distributing these illegal images.
"...there really is no excuse for employers not to have a policy in place which directly addresses the issue of potentially illegal child abuse images in the workplace".

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Although the pace of Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) is increasing, the process is still facing difficulties, according to Telecoms Adjudicator Peter Black.

In his latest report, he says that the number of unbundled phone lines (lines disconnected from BT’s network and rewired to a rival telco) in the UK, has reached 105,00 with numbers growing by 4,000 a week.

LLU is regarded as a key way to increase competition in the industry leading to lower prices and improved services.

Although the pace of LLU is increasing, operational problems with the complex process are negatively impacting the Right First Time KPI [key performance indicator]. Mr Black states in his report: "There has also been an overall deterioration in the quality of delivery. BT and the LLU operators continue to give this highest priority".

This decline in the KPI suggests that there continues to be difficulties supplying unbundled lines to end users although it is not clear if the difficulties lie with BT or LLU operators.

A spokeswoman from Bulldog, the Cable & Wireless LLU operator that is facing an Ofcom investigation following hundreds of complaints about its service, said: "Bulldog welcomes the assessment of the issues as outlined by the industry adjudicator. We hope to see an improvement in BT's performance in the near future."

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Nokia, the mobile phone company, has unveiled Nokia Business Center (NBC), a mobile email system. NBC is designed to make access email and corporate data on the move "more affordable, intuitive and collaborative".

Nokia is implementing an aggressive marketing strategy for the new device. It is working with Good Technology, a mobile email specialist and a rival to RIM. In July, Nokia’s head of Enterprise Solutions, Mary McDowell, said that she was not interested in acquiring RIM. The launch of NBC has raised speculation that Nokia may be considering an acquisition bid for Good Technology.

Almost a year ago, Good and Nokia announced their collaboration on a version of Good's GoodLink and GoodAccess applications for Symbian Series 80 and Series 60 devices. Nokia's client and server code closely resembles Good's.

NBC includes server and dual client components. Customers who buy the NBC server receive an unlimited licence to the standard client. A more feature-rich client will be available for an upgrade fee. The client includes support for English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It runs on any handset with Java MDIP 2.0 support. While this means that it is compatible with phones from various vendors, Nokia is initially only certifying its own devices.

The NBC server connects into Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, but will shortly support Lotus Notes and Domino.

NBC will be available through accredited resellers. It is scheduled to go on sale in Q4 in the Americas and EMEA. Pilot programmes in these regions are underway and will be rolled out to other regions in Q4.

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September 12, 2005

Online auction site eBay is acquiring internet telephone company Skype Technologies for $2.6bn (£1.4bn), in order to create "an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine".

Skype's software enables PC users to talk to each other, free of charge, and also make reduced-price calls to mobiles and landlines. It uses Voice over Internet Protocol technology that converts phone conversations into packets of data. These are then transmitted down the same wires used to surf the internet.

"Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community," said eBay chief executive Meg Whitman.
"By combining the two leading e-commerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with the leader in internet voice communications, we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the net."

Rivals in the online phone market include Google, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo. Google has recently launched its Talk service and Microsoft acquired Teleo for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition is expected to strengthen eBay's global marketplace and payments service and also open up new business opportunities.

Skype has 53 million registered users and approximately two million people use its software at any given moment. It was launched in 2003, since when the free program has been downloaded over 151 million times.

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Alun Michael, the small business minister, has called on councils to be more receptive to bids from small firms for public sector IT contracts. He said councils should take advantage of the expertise, innovation and value for money gains potentially on offer.

A new report on the "benefits of public sector procurement from small business" concludes that government buyers should "seriously consider" bids from smaller firms.

The report includes 20 case studies of public bodies that benefited significantly from working with small and medium-sized enterprises. Approximately half of these showed how SMEs, acting either as a prime or sub-contractor, helped to deliver IT-enabled business change projects successfully for clients ranging from councils to large government departments.

The study identified that procurers consistently commented on the extra qualities provided by the smaller supplier, largely due to their "exceptional commitment" to the project in hand.

The report concludes that there is no "optimal" level of procurement from SMEs and each case needs to be judged on its own merits. This casts doubt on the possibility that the Government will introduce SME 'quotas' or targets.

However the report adds: "The case studies do however suggest that there is scope for achieving net benefits from more use of small businesses across very wide areas of procurement."

The reports findings are to be incorporated into updated government guidance.

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Brendan Barber, the head of the TUC, has called on the government to make employers act on an imminent pension crisis in Britain.

Prior to the TUC’s annual conference in Brighton, Mr Barber said that just one in 10 employees would be in an occupational scheme by 2025.

He said “Voluntarism or even expensive incentives will not work - compulsion must be introduced".

While Mr Barber praised ministers for setting up the Pensions Commission, he said "Only radical solutions can work, and ministers must start preparing the ground now for the big changes that are required".

Mr Barber claimed that 400 top directors in the UK share pension assets of £1 billion.

"The damning evidence that we have published showing just how little boardrooms have shared in pensions sacrifices should mean that they speak with no moral authority on this debate," he said.

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3 UK, which is owned by Hutchison, is launching a “Mobile Web” service in mid-September. It will charge customers £2.50 a month to use their 3G handsets to access online content. Customers will be able to download 5 meg - approximately 500 pages.

However, the service will not provide unlimited web access. 3 is monitoring the sites that are available to ensure that web sites - including the BBC, eBay and Amazon - have been "optimised for viewing on compatible video mobiles".

The company said: "This means the customer can be sure that both front pages and sub-pages are viewable, that the speed of download is high and that all the site's key activities are available".

According to Gareth Jones, 3’s COO, "only a fraction of the internet works well on mobile". The company hopes to extend the choice of high-quality video mobile services and will allow users to nominate sites they want to access, which will then be checked by 3 for compatibility with mobile.

3 is also launching its Wireless Web service in September. This will enable users to plug in their mobile to their laptop to access the net and will cost £45 a month.

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BT is starting trials to roll-out its broadband service to parts of the UK currently without DSL, including at five sites Northern Ireland and four in Yorkshire. Also, beginning in December, BT starts separate trials near Dorchester, Dorset, and in the Kingswells area of Aberdeen.

In both trials, the company is installing its broadband equipment (DSLAMs) in street cabinets nearer to customers’ homes and businesses. This should help deliver broadband to those parts of the UK that are beyond the reach of the BT’s broadband network. The DSLAMs will in turn be connected back to the local telephone exchange by fibre optic cable - an approach known as 'fibre to the cabinet' (FTTC).

Cameron Rejali, MD for products and strategy at BT Wholesale said: "While the vast majority of people can now get access to broadband we haven't lost sight of the small pockets where access to this vital technology remains an issue.
"We're investigating a range of possible solutions which might help us get broadband to small pockets of customers in certain areas."

BT is keen to ensure that the approach is technically and commercially sound. A year ago BT extended its broadband service to 99.8 per cent of the UK. However, approximately 100,000 households mostly in rural areas are still unable to access broadband services.

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September 09, 2005

British Gas is planning to increase the price of gas and electricity by 14%. The company will increase residential charges to British Gas and Scottish Gas customers from 19 September, in response to rising oil prices and shrinking domestic gas reserves.

British Gas, which is part of the Centrica group, will offer a £60 rebate to 250,000 low-income customers to help them pay bills over the winter. It will be paid in two instalments, in November 2005 and February 2006.

British Gas managing director, Mark Clare said: "We are no longer an energy island - spiralling world oil prices are now having an unprecedented impact on the cost of gas as the UK is now dependent on imports,"

Powergen and EDF Energy, rivals to British Gas, have also increased prices due to the surge in commodity costs. Crude oil prices increased to over $70 a barrel after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast and North Sea reserves are declining, making wholesale prices more expensive Powergen increased electricity and gas prices by 7% and 12% respectively. EDF Energy increased the cost of electricity by 10% and gas by 12%.

According to Energywatch, the consumer organisation, domestic gas and electricity prices increased by 21% and 17% respectively in the 18 months to August.

British Gas increased its prices twice in 2004, prompting over 900,000 customers to change to a different supplier.

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Pipex, the ISP, is preparing to offer 24 meg broadband as part of its investment in local loop unbundling (LLU). Local loop unbundling is the process by which phone lines that serve homes and businesses are disconnected from BT's network and reconnected to another provider.

Pipex, which had 215,000 broadband customers at the end of June, is to connect 60 BT exchanges to provide broadband direct to customers. The company has selected exchanges where it has at least 400 customers within 5kms of its core network, providing a payback within 24 months.

Investing in LLU will reduce Pipex’s costs, and enable it to offer new services and speeds of up to 24 meg. Pipex is expected to launch its 24 meg service in early 2006.

Pipex’s executive chairman, Peter Dubens, said: "The initial orders for unbundling local exchanges have been given to BT and we are confident that this will lead to a greater utilisation of our network, better margins and enhanced product offerings to our customers in the future."

Pipex has released its interim results for the six months to the end of June. Turnover increased 47% to £64m compared to £44m during the same period last year. Profit before tax and amortisation increased to £2.5m compared to £2m last year.

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A UK-based organisation to preserve digital rights and freedoms, the Open Rights Group (Org), has been established. The idea for the group came from the OpenTech 2005 conference in July and funding was secured via the Pledgebank website.

The group aims to highlight European and UK legislation that poses a threat to the rights of digital citizens. Although at an early stage of development, the group will serve as a hub for other cyber-rights groups campaigning on similar digital rights issues.

Org is based on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) digital rights group in the US, which has campaigned against restrictions, proposed by the entertainment industry, on what people can do with digital media. It has also provided advice to bloggers at work, and has helped formulate e-voting policies.

Org aims to develop a community of volunteers to campaign on a range of digital rights issues, including ID card proposals, data protection, biometric passports, "fair use" rights over digital content, and vehicle tracking technologies.

There are already a number of digital rights groups in the UK and Europe, including the Campaign for Digital Rights and Foundation for Information Policy Research.

Suw Charman, co-founder of Org, said: "Our aim is to work alongside these people, helping them to connect with each other and providing them with whatever support we can".

The group’s first campaign will be against Home Secretary Charles Clarke's proposed draft EU framework on data retention for ISPs and telecommunications companies. The group believes the proposal is unnecessary and may contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.

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Analysts have always assumed that a move by Apple and Motorola to offer direct over the air music downloads via iTunes, to its newly launched ROKR music phone, would not be welcomed by UK networks. This is based on the fact that it would make iTunes a direct competitor to the network's own music download options.

However, in an interview with Tech Digest, O2’s Head of Music, Graeme Riddell, said that this was never an issue for the company. He said: “We took the phone because it fits in with our core plan and that is to get people using their mobile to listen to music. We acknowledge that it is a competitive market place out there and we have a strong offering and we would be able to offer services that iTunes couldn't such as video downloads, ringtones, ticketing and community features."

However, if Apple were to offer a mobile-friendly version of its iTunes music store, the UK networks' own services would find it hard to compete with a system already advance in PC-based music download technology.

Mr Riddell agreed that the networks would still derive major benefits from the service "as consumers would be using our phone network to download the tracks."

Mr Riddell said that the decision to take the phone was based on the fact that ROKR is a high profile phone and O2 wants to maintain its position as offering the widest and best range of handsets on the High Street.

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HP is implementing a major restructuring strategy, including, according to a union official, the loss of approximately 6,000 jobs in Europe. The majority of the job losses will come from France, Germany and the UK. Worldwide, the company plans to cut its workforce by 15,000.

HP’s new CEO, Mark Hurd, is cutting jobs and reducing retirement benefits as part of cost reduction programme.

The company will start informing staff in all the countries in the coming week, but “the information was given to the European works council at a meeting here," Marc-Antoine Marcantoni of the European Metal Workers Federation in Brussels told Reuters.

Unemployment is currently high on the agenda in Europe, as European finance ministers are meeting in Manchester and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder may loose an election due, in part, to concern over unemployment levels.

In a speech to Wall Street this week, Mr Hurd said he would introduce a new era of accountability at HP.

He said: "We have got to get accountability and responsibility lower down in the organization. People tell you they love to be accountable. Now we'll see who steps up."

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September 08, 2005

Microsoft has filed a second appeal against a European Union ruling that it must give rivals greater access to its operating systems. In March 2004, the EU found Microsoft guilty of abusing its position and administered a heavy fine.

Microsoft has appealed against the fine and is arguing that to give more information on its server programs would violate intellectual property rights.

Microsoft spokesman Tom Brookes said: "We are taking this step so the court can begin its review now of this issue given its far-reaching implications for the protection of our intellectual property rights around the world".

The argument relates to the way that computer servers are set up and how companies can use the computer code that runs them.

Many servers are based on open-source software, which means their operating code is shared and freely available. Microsoft, however, does not give companies full access to the underlying code. In March 2004, the EU ruled that this practice must stop. It also ordered Microsoft to provide a version of Windows operating system without its own Windows Media Player.

Microsoft has asked the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg to rule on the server issue. The court could decide to treat the new appeal as a separate court action, or join it to the one filed last year.

It is unlikely that the case will be resolved fully until at least 2007. Rival server companies say that by the time the case is settled, the technology will have moved on.

Posted at 09:56 PM
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The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to keep UK interest rates on hold at 4.5%, a decision expected by analysts.

In August, the MPC reduced interest rates by a quarter point, in response to concerns about slowing UK economic growth and consumer spending. However, the economic uncertainty caused by Hurricane Katrina, and the rising cost of oil has increased concerns that inflation could rise.

British Chambers of Commerce director general David Frost said: "Following the much-needed interest rate cut in August, it is natural that the committee should wish to assess the situation before taking further action".

However, Mr Frost said the Bank should "signal clearly" that, if necessary, it would reduce interest rates again.

Howard Archer, chief economist at analysts Global Insight, said the Bank had made it clear that another rate reduction was unlikely in the immediate future, but a further quarter point cut in interest rates remained a possibility before the end of the year.

In August, the MPCs decision to cut rates was opposed by four members, including Bank governor Mervyn King. Mr King argued that cutting interest rates too quickly could push inflation higher, above the Bank's target rate of 2%.

Investec analyst Philip Shaw said: "Economic news since the 4 August easing has been a mixed bag and consistent with rates remaining on hold".

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Steve James of Apple has revealed details of Rokr – a device that combines the iPod music player with a mobile phone. Rokr will be able to store 100 songs and play them randomly like the iPod Shuffle.

The gadget, which was developed by Motorola for Apple, will first be available on the network of US mobile operator Cingular. It is silver in colour, has a colour-screen, stereo speakers and includes a VGA quality camera.

Apple has developed a version of its iTunes music store for the phone, enabling users to manage the tracks they store on it. Smart software on the handset pauses music if a phone call is received.

Users can download tunes to Rokr via a USB cable. It can be filled manually, or an autofill option enables the phone to be filled with pop music. Rokr will be available in Cingular stores from 8 September and is expected to cost $249.99. Buyers must also enter into a two-year contract. It should be available in the UK and Europe in late September.

Although Apple hopes to repeat the success it has had with the iPod, several factors could affect sales of the Rokr. Owners may choose to only use the device to play music downloaded into it from a computer. This is because most mobile operators charge by the megabyte so downloading a track while out and about would attract an additional charge.

Also, it might take time for mobile operators to change data pricing regimes which would help to persuade consumers that downloading is worthwhile.

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The European Union has approved a trade agreement with China that should end a disagreement over import quotas and release millions of garments held in port warehouses. The approval should allow the goods to reach European shops within a week.

The disagreement developed after a global tariff and quota system for textiles ended at the beginning of 2005, allowing low-cost Chinese goods to flood markets in Europe, the US and elsewhere. In response, the EU set quotas on the hardest-hit goods, to come into force in July. The US is considering similar limitations.

European retailers then rushed to order goods between the agreement's signing and its implementation, causing quotas on several categories to be rapidly filled and raising the possibility that there would be no further Chinese supplies till 2006. Goods already ordered and paid for were held in port warehouses, causing concern among retailers that they would be unable to re-stock their shelves.

To resolve the problem, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson agreed with Chinese officials that goods would be released, but half the stockpile will count against next year's quotas.

This was dependent on support from member states for the agreement. It was feared that countries such as Italy, Portugal, France and Spain, which have sizable textile industries, and other member states who were listening more to retail groups, would oppose the agreement.

In the end, however, no opposition emerged.

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Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, is setting a maximum price of £81.85 ($151) that BT can charge broadband competitors for access to its network.

In order provide their own internet services, competitors have to rent a fully unbundled local loop, which is the last part of the network linking a BT exchange to homes and businesses.

In August, BT voluntarily reduced its fully unbundled local loop charge to £80 from £105.09. Ofcom is implementing the cap on charges to prevent BT from raising prices excessively in the future.

Ofcom said: "The ceiling is designed to promote competition in the broadband market by ensuring that BT's charge is fair, reasonable and cost-oriented". It plans to allow BT to offer different rates for large business customers spending over £1m a year on telecom services.

BT currently has to offer all large customers the same published call and line charges.

Ofcom hopes to introduce the new price scale by October.

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September 07, 2005

UK petrol and diesel prices are still increasing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. According to industry body Catalist, the average price of petrol is now 95.1 pence a litre, compared with 94.6p on Monday.

Average diesel prices have increased to 97.6p, from 97.3p on Monday, and super-unleaded fuel exceeded £1 for the first time at 100.36p.

Prices are still increasing despite a fall in oil prices. US light crude fell 46 cents to $65.50 a barrel on Wednesday, following a fall of $1.61 on Tuesday. London Brent crude fell 30 cents to $64.37 a barrel.

Prices have now fallen by over $5.00, or 7%, from $70.85 on Tuesday - a record high. They are now almost back to levels seen before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico.

Nine refineries closed down by the hurricane have resumed normal operations, and two others are expected to restart operations later this week.

Analysts expect no major drop in oil prices in the near future, as eastern Florida is again being threatened by a tropical storm. The Gulf of Mexico hurricane season lasts until the end of November.

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September 06, 2005

Several websites have been launched to help people trace friends and relatives, missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and to provide information about damage to homes and businesses.

Authorities have asked for a complete evacuation of the city while the area is cleaned up, but people are still trying to find ways back in to find out if homes and businesses have survived the flood.

The internet has also helped co-ordinate relief efforts, enabling people to volunteer their help and donate to charities working in the disaster area.

US site Craigslist, which advertises jobs, apartments and dating, has set up special pages on its New Orleans site to help people locate missing relatives and volunteer their services. People from across the United States are offering free housing on the site, for people made homeless by the hurricane.

Thousands of messages have been posted on the Craiglist site, and on the online bulletin boards of Nola.com, the website of the New Orleans newspaper.

The message boards also direct people to other sites and services including a database of missing persons set up on the site GulfCoastNews.com.

Bloggers declared Thursday 1 September as Hurricane Katrina: Blog for Relief Day as part of a relief effort to raise money for charities. The effort was set up by the blogger behind TruthLaidBear.com and hundreds of bloggers from 11 countries responded.

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says, in its interim report, that oil prices will remain high, threatening key economies.

It believes 2005 prospects, for the UK and Germany, have been adversely affected by soaring oil costs. The organisation reduced its growth forecast for the UK from 2.4% at its last forecast in May, to 1.9%, and Germany’s from 1.2% to 1%.

However, it says that despite the effect of Hurricane Katrina, US growth is still expected to reach 3.6% this year. The cost of oil has risen by approximately $20 a barrel since May.

At a news conference, the OECD’s chief economist, Jean-Philippe Cotis, said that price of oil was almost at the level recorded at the end of the 1970s. "There is a major shock, and there is no evidence it has reached its conclusion," he said.

The report did, however, predict higher growth for some countries. Italy's economy, which had been expected to contract, is now expected to grow slightly. France and Japan are also now expected to achieve higher growth.

The OECD attributed the disparity to different countries being at different stages of their business cycle. The US is expanding broadly and inflation is stable, placing it better to cope with difficult conditions than the UK, where household consumption is slowing and core inflation rising.

Mr Cotis said the US Federal Reserve should continue to raise interest rates, while the European Central Bank did not need to tighten rates urgently and should try to remain accommodative.

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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) claims that Mastercard and the banks issuing its credit cards have been overcharging customers. The OFT says the fee levied on retailers to recover the costs of the card system - the interchange fee - was too high and therefore all Mastercard purchases in the UK between March 2000 and November 2004 were overcharged.

Mastercard has changed its fee charging practices, but could be fined by the OFT for up to 10% of its annual worldwide turnover.

According to the OFT, the interchange fee was set too high as a deliberate strategy to enable banks issuing Mastercards to recover extra costs, such as those of offering standard interest free periods.

In the year 2004 alone, UK Mastercard users spent £43bn in 700 million separate transactions. The interchange fee paid to the banks by the retailers averaged approximately 0.9%, or £400m.

The OFT said the collective agreement between Mastercard and its banks deterred them from negotiating their own fees with shops and their credit card companies. The excessive charge was simply passed on to retailers, who recovered it by increasing prices in their shops.

Mastercard said that the arrangement with its issuing banks was not against the public interest and did not disadvantage either consumers or retailers. It plans to appeal against the OFT's decision.

The National Consumer Council welcomed the OFT's ruling and said "Card interchange fee arrangements between banks are a tax on all consumers whether or not they use credit cards, because they push up shops' prices as well as card charges."

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According to official Chart-Track figures, over 185,000 Sony Playstation Portables (PSPs) were sold in the first four days of UK sales, making it the fastest-selling games console of all time in the UK.

The Nintendo DS, a rival to the PSP, sold 87,000 in its launch week in March.

The PSP went on sale in Europe on 1 September, nine months after its Japan launch and six months after the US launch. Sony expects to sell a million PSPs in the UK before Christmas.

Many shops have already sold out of the product. Chart-Track reported that nine of the 24 PSP games available at launch, have entered the Top 10 official UK games chart.

In the pre-Christmas period, PSP will compete for sales against Nintendo, which dominates the portable gaming market. In November Nintendo plans to release a new, smaller version of its GameBoy device, called the Micro.

Sony hopes that the PSP will appeal to a broad range of consumers. As well as playing games, the product also plays films, music, and browses the web wirelessly. Thirty films were available for the device at its European launch, and more titles are planned. Sony has developed its own discs for films, called UMD.

Sony has warned PSP owners about a problem that became apparent after the PSP’s US launch in March. Customers returned the device because the LCD screens appeared to be missing pixels. According to Sony the problem is characteristic of LCD technology.

The PSP is being sold in the UK for £179.

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A report by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) claims that working hours could be reduced if UK companies modernised their working practices. The report is supported by both the TUC and the CBI.

It highlights major companies, including BT, Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Eversheds, which have already introduced practices including job sharing and flexi-time to improve shift patterns and productivity. In these companies, better working practices had led to enhanced customer service, better retention of skilled staff and improved morale.

The report emphasises that staff should be are involved in consultation about changes to working practices.

Employment Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said: "Creating a culture where we work smarter rather than longer is key to improving worker satisfaction, as well as improving competitiveness, productivity and retaining skilled workers".

The CBI said the report showed that better working practices could lead to a reduction in absenteeism.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Unions do believe in proper regulation - but this initiative shows workplaces can do even better when managers and employees work together."

However, the TUC also said that the government should back an EU directive limiting the working week to 48 hours. Ministers want to maintain the opt-out, believing a flexible workforce is more competitive.

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September 05, 2005

A survey by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) showed that the UK’s service sector grew at its slowest rate for three months in August. CIPS’s Services Business Activity Index fell to 55.2 in August compared with 56.3 in July. The slow-down was attributed to record oil prices, which pushed up fuel and energy costs.

Although the figure was below the expected 56, the service sector grew for the 29th month in a row.

According to the CIPS, the transport, communications, hotels and restaurants sector grew most, suggesting that the July terrorist attacks on London had caused little long-term damage to tourism.

The survey recorded increased overseas spending on UK services, helping offset lower demand at home.

The CIPS stressed that there was still concern about the strength of the economy and higher wage costs. The organisation’s business expectations index also slowed last month.

Roy Ayliffe, director of professional practice at CIPS said: "Business sentiment about the future took a slight knock amid concerns amongst service providers over the performance of other sectors of the economy".

Mr Ayliffe said the this was most evident in the financial services sector."

However, data last week from CIPS showed that the manufacturing sector had returned to growth in August, and construction activity was growing at its fastest rate for a year.

CIPS expects the UK economy as a whole to grow by between 0.6% and 0.7% in the third quarter - up from 0.5% in the second quarter.

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The decision to release two million additional barrels of oil a day from international reserves, has helped energy prices return to levels similar to those recorded before Hurricane Katrina struck.

Brent crude fell 1.5% to $65.10 a barrel in London on Monday and prices fell 2.7% in New York on Friday before markets shut for the Labour Day holiday.

Crude oil had reached a record $70.85 in the US after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Key parts of the US oil industry were in the path of the hurricane, which destroyed refineries and oil platforms.

Some plants, including Chevron's refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, suffered severe damage that could take months to repair, while others hope to re-commence operations shortly. Motiva Enterprises' plant in Convent, Louisiana, has completed repairs and is ready to re-start production, while Marathon Oil expects its refinery in Garyville, Louisiana, to be back to normal later on Monday.

At least 20 rigs or platforms are reported damaged, sunk or missing. BP has, however, re-started operations at some offshore facilities.

The 30-day plan to release oil is the first time the International Energy Agency, whose membership comprises 26 industrialised countries, has taken steps to open up its strategic reserve since 1991.

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September 02, 2005

Experts have warned UK motorists to expect an increase in already high petrol spices, due to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

The damage caused by the hurricane to oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and refineries in the southern US states, has raised fears of petrol shortages in the US. Many US motorists are now paying a record $3 a gallon, and petrol prices in the UK are above 90p a litre for the first time. Some forecourts in London and remote parts of Scotland are charging £1 a litre.

The high petrol prices are mainly due to the soaring cost of oil, which reached a record $70.85 a barrel earlier this week, and security fears in the Middle East, which are causing concern about the safety of oil supplies. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is adding further pressure to petrol prices.

According to Akber Ali of research group Catalist, the average price of a litre of unleaded petrol in the UK was 92.3p on Thursday. Petrol prices were highest in south west England, at 92.74p, while the cheapest average petrol price – 91.9p – was in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Separately, Catalist found that of the large operators, Shell petrol stations were the cheapest, with petrol at only 91p litre on Thursday, while BP was the most expensive, with petrol at 93p a litre.

High petrol prices have affected the wider UK economy. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that price inflation increased to 2.3% in July from 2% in June, due to increased transport costs.

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The Competition Commission has ruled that supermarket group, Somerfield, must sell 12 of the stores it acquired from WM Morrison, as part of a £260m contract in 2004, in order to prevent a "substantial lessening" of competition in the local areas of the stores.

The Commission had originally expressed concerns over 14 of the 115 Morrison stores acquired by Somerfield, but it reduced the number after Somerfield eased concerns that the acquisitions of sites at Bedlington and Paisley would impact on the local grocery market.

Somerfield’s board will consider the Commission’s findings at its meeting on Thursday 8 September.

In July, Somerfield criticised the Competition Commission for intervening in the deal. It said the regulator had put "the cart before the horse" when it made its provisional report into the takeovers, and that the Commission had acted on a "theoretical possibility" that the group would act in a certain way after it had acquired the stores.

The ruling means that Somerfield will have to sell stores in Filey, North Yorkshire; Middlesbrough Linthorpe; Newark; Pocklington, East Riding; Poole Bearwood; South Shields; and Whitburn in West Lothian.

In Johnstone, Renfrewshire; Peebles in the Scottish Borders and Yarm at Stockton-on-Tees the group can either sell its newly bought stores or close its existing outlet.

The Commission also said that Somerfield must sell off stores it has already closed in Kelso and Littlehampton.

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Finnish security firm F-Secure has created anti-virus software for mobile phones, that will be offered for sale on the High Street. The program was developed in response to the growing number of viruses infecting handsets.

Viruses that hop from phone to phone have been seen to spread at a Live8 concert and at the World Championships in Helsinki. The phone viruses are expected to become as big a security issue as Windows viruses.

According to Richard Hales, UK manager for F-Secure, although many mobile operators have installed software in their networks to stop the spread of viruses, better protection was required to stop the bugs passing from phone to phone.

Mobile viruses, including Cabir and Commwarrior, can spread via the Bluetooth short range radio system, which is found on many smart phones. Commwarrior can also spread via multimedia messaging systems. Most of the mobile phone viruses target handsets that use the Symbian operating system. It is possible to avoid infection by turning off Bluetooth on smart phones.

According to Ollie Whitehouse, technical manager at Symantec, there are some factors that limit the spread of mobile virues.
"None of them have been truly autonomous like worms on PCs," he said. "They always require a certain degree of user interaction."

However, he said that this limitation was likely to disappear as the numbers of ways to get data in and out of phones increased.

F-Secure’s anti-virus software for mobiles will be in the shops and available online from 5 September. It is designed for Nokia's Symbian-using smartphones.

Posted at 11:23 PM
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Computer users are being alerted to a malicious e-mail that pretends to offer news updates about Hurricane Katrina. The e-mail gives a brief news bulletin on the disaster and then instructs people to click to "read more" and be taken to the full story on a website. Once directed to the website, a “Trojan” virus is sent to the user's computer, which gives the hacker complete access to and control of the victim’s files.

People are also being urged to be aware of e-mail scams pretending to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The virus and fake donations e-mail scams were identified by computer security companies SophosLabs and Websense Security Labs. They are similar to previous fraudulent e-mails connected to the Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004.

Users are advised not to open the emails and to delete them immediately. People are also recommended to check their virus-protection is up to date and to double-check the validity of any charity that asks via e-mail for a donation for the victims of Katrina.

Posted at 11:23 PM
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The Engineering Employers Federation has suggested that some pension contributions should be made compulsory for both employers and their staff. It is the first significant business organisation to demand that compulsion be introduced.

The organisation submitted a plan for a number of pension reforms to the Pensions Commission. Its proposes that employers and individuals should both be required to contribute a minimum 40% of income into a national scheme of investment funds.

The EEF's plans also include an enhanced state pension system that would provide at least 21% of national average earnings at the age of 65. The proposals have been costed by the Pensions Policy Institute.

Other business organisations, including the CBI and the British Chambers of Commerce have opposed compulsion in the past, saying it would lead to higher costs for employers.

Alan Wood, president of the EEF said: "It's something that has to be faced up to. We do need to start planning now for a better system for the future."

The Pensions Commission is scheduled to publish its second report, with policy recommendations, by the end of November.

Posted at 11:22 PM
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September 01, 2005

According to the Nationwide, house prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in August, with the average cost of a home at £157,310. Annual price growth fell to 2.3% from 2.6% in July, the lowest level for nine years. However, in the three months to August prices increased by 0.3%.

Nationwide said that prices were experiencing a "continued controlled slowdown". Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide group economist said: "In spite of a fair deal of bearish comment, the housing market has remained quite resilient this year following last year's interest rate hikes".

The figures were in line with recent surveys from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the Land Registry, both of which recorded a decline in annual house price inflation from almost 20% a year ago to approximately 5%.

According to Ms Earley, monthly purchase approvals were increasing and estate agents had noticed a willingness among sellers to adjust prices. These factors, together with a reduction in interest rates, had led to increased numbers of buyer enquiries and increased optimism about sales from estate agents.

Ms Earley warned, however, that the affordability of houses was still an issue, particularly among first time buyers. She said she expected the market to continue to cool in a "controlled fashion".

Ed Stansfield, an analyst at Capital Economics said the figures were "no surprise" and supported "long standing anecdotal evidence" of a market slowdown. He suggested that the fall in prices in London and the South East was likely to spread across the country.

Posted at 07:49 PM
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A study by the Institute of Cancer Research suggests that mobile phone use does not increase the risk of cancer, at least in the first 10 years of use. Some previous research had suggested an increased risk of acoustic neuroma, a tumour of the nerve connecting the ear and the brain, while other studies did not support this.

The latest research from the Institute of Cancer Research, which was published in the British Journal of Cancer, is the largest study to date and includes data from the UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Over 4,000 people were surveyed, including 678 people with acoustic neuroma and 3,553 without this form of cancer.

Experts are still advising that mobile phone use should be limited as a precautionary measure, as longer follow-up is needed to check that health problems do not arise with many more years of use.

An independent group for the UK government, led by Sir William Stewart, that looked into the safety of mobile phones in the late 1990s also reached the conclusion that mobile phones did appear to pose a health risk.

However, the group said there was evidence that radiation from mobile phones could potentially cause adverse health effects. It therefore advised a "precautionary approach" to their use.

Current government advice is to keep mobile phone call times short and limit the use of mobile phones by children under the age of 16 to essential calls only. This is because their head and nervous systems may still be developing.

Posted at 07:49 PM
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Argos and Homebase are not honouring a website deal offering a television and DVD, normally priced at £350, for 49p.

Thousands of internet shoppers bought the 28" TV and DVD over the Bank Holiday weekend and have had money taken from their account.

The stores are apologising for the pricing mistake, which was due to an internal error and are advising customers that they will not be able to fulfil the orders.

In an interview with the BBC, Consumer expert Jonathan Woodroffe, of the solicitors Ashley Wilson, said: "The contract is void. If the deal is too good to be true, it is."

Argos Retail Group has now rescinded all the orders and is giving refunds. It said a mistake was made while keying in prices. It said in a statement: "As soon as we were made aware of the problem, we took steps to make the product unavailable for purchase".

Mr Woodroffe said that if a £20 DVD had been on sale for 49p or the first 10 or five sets had been on sale at the low price as a loss leader, the offer may have been considered reasonable. He said: "It comes down to whether a reasonable person would think it was a joke.”

Posted at 07:49 PM
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At the Games Developers Conference Europe in London, Toby Barnes of Pixel-Lab said that people looking to make video games were not taking full advantage of funding from regional bodies or tax breaks.

While the UK has a strong reputation for producing innovative games, increasing costs has led to many studios closing down.

The games industry has asked repeatedly for more government support, similar to the funding provided to British art house films. There is concern in the industry about the rising costs of making games for the next generation of console games, because of the number of people and level of skills needed.

Mr Barnes said that it was unlikely that games developers would receive support just because films received funding in the past. He said game developers should do more to take advantage of the support already available, including tax credits for research and development.

Under a scheme introduced in 2000, companies can reclaim £1.50 for every £1 spent on research. He said that smaller companies often lacked the expert advice needed to work the system.

Mr Barnes also said suggested regional development associations as a potential source of support. Many regions were trying to attract creative industries such as games to fill the gap left by a decline in manufacturing.

Regional bodies receive funding from the EU to help them rebuild the local economy. These funds can be used for the early stages of games development. As video games costing over £10m to create, publishers are often reluctant to fund new projects from untried developers, while regional development agency funding might provide some of the necessary support funding.

Posted at 07:49 PM
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Virgin and HMV are launching music download services, to compete in a market dominated by PC and software firms. Virgin is launching its service on Friday 2 September, while HMV’s rival HMV Digital service will be launched three days later.

Both services are based on a subscription model where users can listen to any music for a monthly fee. In contrast, users of Apple's iTunes service pay per track or album.

HMV and Virgin hope their brand names will attract older music lovers to use a download service. Both companies plan to charge £14.99 a month for access to their libraries of over a million tunes apiece.

As long as users keep up their subscription, they will be able to transfer their downloads onto a portable music player. If they stop paying, however, the music will become unuseable. To keep a tune permanently, users will have to pay an additional fee for each track or album.

Most individual tracks will be priced at 79 pence. However, HMV plans to allow record labels to price new artists at lower rates to attract interest.

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: "I think in time the public will realise that there is a vast choice available to them". "The iPod has been so successful because it is a fashion item as much as anything else, but fashions tend to change in time."

Mr Castaldo said the move was the firm's way to allow people access to a new format for music.

Posted at 07:49 PM
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Internet giant Yahoo! has been criticised by anti-spyware Ben Edelman for funding spyware companies with its Yahoo! search marketing advertising programs.

In one example, Ben Edelmen calculated that Yahoo! paid the company Claria - originally known as infamous spyware company Gator - over $50 million in advertising revenues in 2004.

Search engine watcher Danny Sullivan used the report to call on Yahoo! to allow it's advertisers to opt-out of specific programs, not least to help avoid potential liabilities in being seen to directly support adware and spyware installed on users machines.

The timing of the report by Edelman could be critical, as a US court judge today set a precedent, by ruling that people affected by spyware can sue the spyware companies, as well as their advertisers.

Posted at 04:20 PM
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