Monthly Archives: April 2007

Bulldozers will move in on empty shops ‘within weeks’

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AT last! After years of delays and false starts, the green light has finally been given to a £53million redevelopment of Farnborough town centre.

For nearly a decade, shoppers have been growing weary, waiting for the ageing Queensmead and Kingsmead developments to be demolished and replaced.

On Monday developer Key Property Investments (KPI) and Rushmoor Borough Council announced they had both signed on the dotted line.

If all goes according to plan, shoppers could be doing their 2008 Christmas shopping in the rejuvenated town centre.

Story continues on the Farnborough News and Mail website

New Features Added to Windows Live Spaces

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Windows Live Spaces is now available in 51 countries in 25 languages. There have been 93 million spaces created since Spaces was released, and more than 111 million people a month use Spaces. More than 18 million photos a day are uploaded to Spaces, with over 4 billion photos added since day 1. And with that, here’s what all these people will be experiencing for the first time, in the most recent update:

  • New Spaces home page: The first page after logging in will inform you on who has updated their space and who has added comments to your space. Roll over their picture to see who’s updated their photos, who’s posted a blog entry, and who’s added new lists.
  • Messaging: Keep in touch with your Spaces friends and meet other people on Spaces by sending them messages by putting your cursor over their profile picture and selecting the “Send a message” link. You can also use the link in the Visitor tools module on a person’s space.
  • Guestbook: Add the guestbook module and people visiting your space can leave comments with rich formatting, including images and video.

    More on this article: http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=39642

    • Arrest after MySpace house party

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    A 17-year-old girl has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage in connection with a house party which left a family home wrecked.

    About 200 youngsters damaged Alan and Elaine Bell’s home after the party was advertised on the website MySpace.

    Guests are alleged to have urinated on a wedding dress and stolen jewellery from the house near Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, on Easter Monday.

    Durham Police said the girl had been questioned and released on police bail.

    Article continues here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6553763.stm

    Microsoft Confirms Move to DRM-Free Music

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    Lost amid the hoopla over last week’s EMI announcement regarding their decision to sell digital music without digital rights management (DRM) restrictions was the fact that Apple was only the first digital music reseller to sign on for the new offerings. This week, Microsoft admitted that it, too, would offer music without DRM.
     

    UK hacker loses extradition fight

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    A British man has lost his High Court fight against extradition to the US for allegedly carrying out the "biggest military computer hack of all time".
     
    Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, of north London, is accused of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers.

    Home Secretary John Reid granted the US request to extradite him for trial.

    At the High Court in London, his lawyers argued the 41-year-old had been subjected to "improper threats" and the move would breach his human rights.

    His lawyers had argued that, if extradited, he would face an unknown length of time in pre-trial detention, with no likelihood of bail.

    More on this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6521255.stm

    EMI Music launches DRM-free digital downloads

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    London, 2 April 2007 – EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.
     
    Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music."
     
    In May, Apple’s iTunes Store will be the first online retailer to offer EMI’s catalogue in two formats: at standard audio quality with DRM, or, for a premium price, improved audio quality without DRM restrictions. Specific details are as follows:
     
        * Standard tracks: 128kb/s AAC, DRM protection, locked into Apple players, $0.99/€0.99/£0.79
        * Premium tracks: 256kb/s AAC, no DRM protection, interoperable with non-Apple players, $1.29/€1.29/£0.99
        * Previously bought EMI tracks can be ‘upgraded’ to higher quality and DRM-free for $0.30/£0.15
        * Albums: offered with the above premium features at the same price prior to the announcement.
        * Music videos: also offered DRM-free.