Apple, Cisco settle iPhone dispute

Digit Online: "Apple, Cisco settle iPhone dispute"

Apple and Cisco have agreed that they'll both use the iPhone moniker for their respective products. They settled out of court. No suprise there really.

They'd been in discussion prior to Apple's announcement, during and since and it's just taken a while to come to an agreement.

Colt lacks plan for its £1.5m mobile licence - ZDNet UK

Colt lacks plan for its £1.5m mobile licence - ZDNet UK

Hmm, no attribution though the guy used info off this blog and then phoned me.

xda-developers - Announcements in Forum : Palm Treo 750

xda-developers - Announcements in Forum : Palm Treo 750

It seems Microsoft have asked the XDA Developers site to remove all ROM images from their site, even ones posted by carriers or handset manufacturers.

The XDA site had various official and unofficial Windows Mobile ROM sets, and hacks on how to use them on various handsets.

I successfully installed an iMate WM5 ROM onto an O2 Exec - which has improved stability compared to the O2 versions (later OS and drivers). Luckily I have the WM6 XDA ROM which I'll have to try and install soon.

Microsoft unveils public beta of YouTube rival

Digit Online

Microsoft have released Soapbox (beta) a video sharing site like YouTube. Anyone can view content, but you need a Microsoft Live ID to upload stuff.

It's another web services offering banded in with other Live applications, but currently branded with MSN.

Adobe ships Photoshop Lightroom

Digit Online

Adobe's answer to Apple Apperture, now called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has started shipping for $199 which will increase to $299 on April 30th. Adobe say it will not be included in future versions of Creative Suite.

Lightroom is a photographic workflow application now supporting over 150 cameras (with native RAW formats) allowing the user to manipulate digital photographs in a manner similar to that of an old lightroom for film.

It's natively available on both Windows and MacOS X.

Parallels Desktop improves Vista support

Digit Online

Parallels, the software for MacOS X that allows running Windows within the desktop has been upgraded to RC3 build 3170 (which will be 2.5 when released).

This has several new features including coherence that allows running Windows apps from the dock. It also supports Vista.

The download is available from the Parallels website.

PUBLIC BROADBAND SCHEMES, A Best Practice Guide

Ofcom and the DTI have published a guide on the rolling out of public broadband services by local government.

This should aid councils and other bodies with the regulatory environment ensuring they don't break state aid regulations and other issues such as distorting the commercial market place.

There are times when state funding can "pay" for broadband roll-out to ensure that their locality is on the right side of the digital divide (which may in in areas where commercial broadband roll-out would be uneconomic), but this can be a difficult line to tread as stimulating demand may make commercial services attractive.

The three main rationales for public intervention in broadband infrastructure provision can be ordered in terms of the ease with which the case to support them can be built:

A. Addressing market failures.
B. Achieving distributional policy objectives.
C. Increasing regional competitiveness.

The report gives contacts at both the DTI and Ofcom if public bodies wish to contact them for more detailed information or help.

Band III Information Update

Band III is makes up what used to be the VHF TV channels and some of the band is now used by Private Mobile Radio.

The Band was covered by the Stockholm ’61 Agreement which designated this band for TV broadcast across the EU.

The band is actually split into 3 sub-bands, the lower two being used for PMR in the UK and the 3rd being made available for use by T-DAB. The PMR use was always designated secondary use, though some bilateral agreements were made with neighbouring countries to extend its lifetime.

In May/June 2006 the Regional Radiocommunications Conference (RRC-06) which is made up of around 120 ITU member states in Europe, Middle East and Africa, had an objective to harmonise the Band III (and Band IV) use. Though the UK had an interest to maintain their interestes, they could not go against the wishes of the rest of the conference.

Sub-band 1 will be available for PMR use for a while (though the lowe parts will be needed by 2009 for T-DAB use), sub-band 2 will be used for T-DAB significantly after 2012.

Ofcom is actively moving sub-band 2 and affected sub-band 1 users and giving them priority on new available spectrum in sub-band 1, new users may be delayed allocations.

Where possible new bilateral agreements will be made with neighbouring countries to protect users of the spectrum, the main affected areas being the south and south east which are prone to continental interference. There may also be interference from Ireland.