E3 2003: Nokia press conference report

At its pre-E3 press conference, Nokia revealed the price and availability of its portable gaming system/mobile phone gizmo, the N-Gage. The N-Gage is set for a worldwide release on October 7 at a price of $299 ?185 or 260 Euros), with game cards costing anywhere between $30-40 (?25 or 35 Euros). Although Nokia was clearly happy with this price point, the muted response from games journalists suggested that the company is asking too much for its multi-functional games gadget. ...more

China fines Yahoo! over unlicensed music sites

A Beijing court has ordered Yahoo! China to delete links to free websites offering music-downloads and to pay about 200,000 yuan (?12,922) for facilitating distribution of unlicensed songs by other sites, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. But in the ruling published on a Chinese website linked to the Court, Beijing's No. 2 Intermediate Court said Yahoo! China should bear some responsibility for the copyright infringement, although the music was downloaded from servers of third-party websites. ...more

W3C approves new PNG graphics format

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - the body responsible for Internet standards - has published PNG Second Edition as a W3C Proposed Recommendation. This is the final stage of approval granted by the standards body. Now a mature format, PNG (pronounced 'ping') was designed to be a portable and lossless way to transmit compressed graphic images across the Internet. ...more

UK poised to take lead in tackling online child abuse

A new organisation has been formed to tackle the growing problem of child abuse. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre will tap into a range of resources, including information from the likes of Microsoft, AOL and VISA, as well as law enforcement agencies and children's charities to tackle child abuse in all its forms, including the Internet. CEO of the new CEOP Centre, Jim Gamble, former Deputy Director General of the National Crime Squad, said: 'The CEOP Centre is the most significant development in child protection in recent years and is a direct response to the explosion in online child abuse. ...more

Price check: Tablet PCs

Microsoft's Origami project turned out to be little more than that: a project. The end product appeared as underwhelming as it was overhyped. A cross between a Portable Media Center and a Tablet PC, what is now known to be the ultra-mobile category looks a slim one. ...more