Ed Oswald

The British government has decided to launch an investigation into the sales practices of the "Crazy Frog" ringtone. The move comes after complaints were received from parents of children who claimed they were tricked into signing up for pricey subscription plans by downloading the ringtone.

Regulators say over 100 complaints have been received against MBlox, the company that sells the ringtones in the UK. The ringtone was created by Jamster, which has already been sued in California for a similar complaint.

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Verizon announced on Tuesday that it had expanded its BroadbandAccess to major airports nationwide as part of the continuing rollout of its EV-DO network. The high-speed wireless service costs $80 USD per month and Verizon claims speeds of 400 to 700kbps with bursts of speed up to 2Mbps possible.

Currently, the service is available anywhere in the metropolitan areas of 30 major cities. Verizon says it plans to have half the population covered by the end of the year. BroadbandAcess requires the purchase of a wireless data card that range for $50-$100 after a $100 rebate and two year agreement. One year service contracts are also available.

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Yahoo said on Monday that a new beta version of its Web e-mail service would be launched in the next two months. The site revision adds technologies that the company gained from its purchase of Oddpost, such as drag and drop organization of mail, an instant preview pane, and upgraded search capabilities.

The beta version of the site will only be rolled out to a select group of testers. No target date for widespread release has been set as of yet, according to company officials. Yahoo, which is the top provider of web based e-mail in the United States, counts some 60 million unique users according to research firm comScore.

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Imation showed off its latest hardware at a press event in New York City on Monday night, including a preview of a USB hard drive so small that it could practically fit on top of a quarter. More details on the unit, as well as a public launch are expected in early July.

The Imation Micro Drive uses a USB 2.0 connection to a PC and will be compatible with all three major operating systems: Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Imation says its target audience for the new drive is industry professionals who require the transport of large files in their lines of work, such as advertising or science.

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Apple enthusiasts picking apart the newest version of iTunes have uncovered several references seemingly pointing to an imminent release of an iTunes phone from Motorola. Various phrases such as "Eject Mobile Phone", "PhonePodcasts", and "Setup Your Mobile Phone" were found within the code of the application.

It has been rumored that the iTunes phone may be released as early as this week, although neither Motorola nor Apple have made any indication that such a launch is scheduled. However, iTunes 4.9 appears to be making some necessary changes to support the phone, which has led some enthusiasts to believe that the wait may be over.

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TiVo has brought in a veteran media executive to head the company, ending a four month search after TiVo founder Mike Ramsay announced plans to step down as CEO in January. Tom Rogers had served as executive vice president of NBC and was CEO of Primedia before coming to TiVo as a member of the board in 1999. He later became vice chairman in 2004.

As the DVR company's new CEO, Rogers will have the task of bringing TiVo's subscriber numbers up, something the company has admittedly had difficulty doing. Most of TiVo's subscribers come through its partnership with DirecTV, which make up about 2.1 million of a total 3.3 million subscribers.

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Microsoft and Toshiba have entered into a wide-ranging agreement that will allow the two companies to share hardware and software technologies. The deal aims to accelerate the delivery to the market of new Microsoft technologies in electronic devices.

Both companies made it clear that the intellectual property rights would be respected.

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Nokia strengthened its commitment to the Java platform on its Series 60 phones, announcing at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco that it would include an enhanced configuration in capable phones. This means that developers will be able to build applications for the platform that will run across all Series 60 devices.

Series 60 is Nokia's version of the Symbian OS, which is the worlds most widely used smartphone operating system. Several leading mobile phone manufacturers including LG, Samsung, Sendo, and Siemens are Series 60 licensees. According to Nokia, the company sold 25 million devices equipped with the OS as of the end of last month.

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PERSPECTIVE With Longhorn still at least 18 months -- if not longer -- away from a final release, I decided now was as good a time as ever to try out the Mac OS X operating system.

I have not had a lot of experience with Macs, other than in elementary and middle school with old Apple IIc and IIe's (like most people) and on an old G3 running Mac OS 9 at my job while I was in college. Even though Apple may have sharp looking desktops and a highly regarded operating system, I never had a reason to leave the world of Windows.

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American public libraries are struggling to keep up with the demand for computer and Internet access, a study commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the American Library Association has found.

Almost 99 percent of the country's libraries offer computer and Internet access, more than four times the amount of high-tech libraries in 1996. However, more than 85 percent of respondents to the survey said that at some point in the day they are not able to meet demand, which they blame on a lack of proper funding.

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Apple appears to be the big winner in May retail PC sales, according to data released by financial firm Credit Suisse First Boston. Even though overall PC sales slowed to 6 percent year over year -- the first single digit growth since October of 2003 -- Apple managed to lead the pack.

"From a vendor perspective, Apple Computer was the big winner, growing units 79 percent year-over-year overall and 94 percent year-over-year in standalone retail," CSFB said in its note to clients.

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MCI last week quietly began a small trial of a voice over IP (VoIP) service for residential subscribers. 5,000 customers in select markets were given the opportunity to test the service, and could pick from either 500 minutes for $19.99 or unlimited calling for $29.99 per month.

At the end of the trial, MCI will make a decision whether such a VoIP phone service is viable, company representatives told Reuters.

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Sprint and Nextel announced how they will handle the transition to the combined company that is expected to complete by the end of the summer. The name for the company will be Sprint, however Nextel's brand name will continue to be used for certain services provided by the company.

Originally, it was believed that the merged company would take the name Sprint-Nextel. However, according to officials, internal studies showed that the Sprint name alone carried a better positive response on its own. Sprint Nextel will only refer to the corportation itself.

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Verizon and Samsung on Thursday announced the first commercially available Windows Mobile device to support high-speed EV-DO technology. The Samsung SCH-i730 will become widely available next month exclusively through Verizon, and features a slide design that hides a built-in keyboard when not in use.

The i730 also includes Bluetooth capabilities and built in Wi-Fi, as well as an SD expansion slot for added memory. 64MB of RAM and 128MB of Flash memory will come standard with the device.

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According to a music industry group, one out of every three compact discs sold last year was pirated at a cost to the industry of $4.6 billion. There was some good news to be found in the report, as piracy only grew 2 percent year over year, which was the smallest increase in half a decade.

The report released by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries says that in 31 countries the amount of pirated music sold outweighs legal music. Also, in 2004 new countries have become problem areas for piracy, including Chile, Czech Republic, Greece, India and Turkey.

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