Novell: Open Source software will revolutionise the industry

During his keynote at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Novell's Vice Chairman Chris Stone, said that the choice and freedom for end users that Open Source software makes possible will revolutionise the industry. 'Open Source offers [customers] the flexibility to change.. ...more

Ofcom clamps down on rogue broadband charges

Regulator Ofcom has launched an industry-wide review into additional fees charged by telecoms companies following customer complaints that many of these charges were unfair. 'The review will consider whether additional charges are sufficiently transparent, whether the charges or their levels are unfair, and what action, if any, is necessary,' the telecoms regulator claims. Consumers have to pay additional charges to providers of home phone, mobile, broadband or pay-TV services for missed or late bill payments and earlier-than-scheduled termination of services. ...more

CD sales rocket despite digital success

The UK music industry is celebrating record quarterly CD sales of 27.9 million, defying predictions that the rise of the digital market would hit physical sales. Downloads rose by 152 per cent year-on-year, leading the BPI to suggest that the digital market is complementary to the physical, although only last week it was telling us that music downloading was having an adverse effect on CD sales. ...more

Toshiba notebooks with HD-DVD blue-laser drives on the horizon

Toshiba is to launch notebooks featuring next-gen HD-DVD blue-laser drives before the end of next year, according to Japanese news service Nihon Keizai. The range would fall under its Qosmio brand of high-end entertainment focused laptops launched earlier this year - which currently allow users to watch TV without having to boot into Windows. HD-DVD uses blue-laser technology to write up to 15GB on an optical disc and is supported by the likes of Toshiba and NEC. ...more

Vista on Intel Macs not on the horizon

The retiring head of Microsoft's Windows team has confirmed, to no great surprise, that there will not be a version of Vista built to run on Apple's Intel Macs. 'We have no plans to move Vista to the Macintosh hardware,' Jim Allchin told the Seattle Times. At least not while Microsoft's Mac Business Unit continues to sell Virtual PC software that enables Macs to run the Windows OS alongside their own. ...more