Mousetrap Technology - Times Online - WBLG

Sony BMG settles rootkit cases on the cheap

What is the penalty for selling spyware masquerading as Celine Dion, Susie Suh and Neil Diamond CDs to more than two million unsuspecting consumers? If you're Sony BMG, the world's second largest music label, the answer is a slap on the wrist. Oh, and a promise not to do it again.

Is the DVD on its last legs?

Is the DVD's best days behind it? It very well could be, according to new research by media analysts Screen Digest. The firm says Europe's DVD retail and rental market is set to fall in 2006, its second straight declining year, with further drops forecasted through the next five years.

Enter the iPhone

The iPhone has arrived. But it's not made by Apple...

Making hay...

Good news for web developers... IT professionals with website-building skills are commanding soaring rates of pay as advertising budgets migrate online, a study by the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSC) says.

Developers who work with web technologies including Java, Enterprise JavaBeans, Microsoft .Net and BEA Weblogic Server have seen their pay rise by an average of 27 per cent over the past year. Your average developer conversant in BEA Weblogic now earns about £50,000 a year, up 30 per cent, from £38,500, 12 months ago, the ATSC found.

'Geo-targeting' is key to Skype TV

One of the most intriguing elements of the announcement by Skype’s founders, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, that they are to launch an internet television service is the issue of digital rights management (DRM).

The internet has already proven itself as a platform for delivering video content. Sites such as YouTube – and similar offerings from MySpace and MSN – have enabled millions of users to upload and share their own videos, and now mainstream content producers, including the television networks, are hopping on board.

IBM-Yahoo! enterprise search - Forrester likes it a lot

There is a snippet of analysis on IBM’s pact with Yahoo! on enterprise search on the Forrester website.

“The latest in IBM's line of enterprise search products, IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition, is powerful, simple to use, and free,” it says in the first part of a glowing review. 

The browser wars are back on

Some unsettling stats for Microsoft: Mozilla's Firefox is fast catching up on Microsoft in Europe. Or so says web measurement firm Xiti Monitor. In this, its second year, Firefox now represents 23 per cent of the European browser market, Xiti Monitor says. In seven European countries, it has a share of greater than 30 per cent. For a good country-by-country breakdown, click here.

New memory chips smaller and faster than flash

Flash memory capacity is improving at such a rate that a 10Gb flash drive is no longer unthinkable. But now according to IBM, there's something even better. The new chip technology unveiled today by Big Blue, Macronix and Qimonda is 500 times faster than flash and uses half the power.

It's also much smaller than today's flash drives, which means not only will these chips be able to read and write faster, and use less energy, but they also promise to usher in an era of smaller gadgets that Moore's Law wouldn't have previously foreseen.

Cash-strapped Christmas

Tech-savvy teens could save themselves some cash this Christmas by creating a gift pack of free-but-valuable software. A bit of time spent downloading and installing no-cost security programs will protect a technophobic uncle’s PC from the viruses, hackers and spyware that could cost him thousands if cyber-criminals have their way.

Early Zune sales underwhelm

Perhaps Microsoft should have considered selling the Zune everywhere from day one. As this reporter can attest from a recent trip to the United States, Microsoft's iPod killer isn't exactly flying off the shelves state-side.

The search for human rights

The human rights organisation Huridocs has launched a search tool designed to overcome some of the obstacles faced by researchers using conventional search engines such as Google.

"Imagine a search for information on underage girls being trafficked for prostitution," James Lawson, one of the creators of the Hurisearch engine, said. "You can’t conduct the search on a [mainstream] search engine."

Music labels turn to e-mail to plug new bands

Music fans, would you subscribe to a monthly service to receive e-mailed audio and video clips of familiar bands and unknown, emerging talents? What if EMI, home to Coldplay, Gorillaz and Lilly Allen, was involved?