Orange is offering true tones and remixable tracks for its phones in association with EMI Music.

Easynet is set to offer 18Mbps internet access later this year via its ADSL2+ service, subject to Ofcom approval.

European online banner advertising has grown 24%.

The Sun has launched a WAP entertainment site.

Music downloads now outstrip physical singles sales in the UK.

Napster reduced its downlod prices by 20%.

Waitrose.com, the broadband offering from Waitrose is promoting itself as the "only broadband provider in the UK to donate all its profits to charity".

Further to last month’s baby naming story, a Romanian couple have named their baby “Yahoo” because they met on the Internet!

According to new statistics Microsoft employees use Google for searching the web 66% of the time compared with Microsoft’s own MSN Search only 20% of the time. In contrast, employees at Google always use Google to search the web!

Microsoft has launched a free downloadable Windows anti-spyware program to compete with existing products from Ad-Aware and SpyBot.

Apple sold more than 10 million iPods last year - with almost half of those coming in the run up to Christmas.

Apple has just launched the iPod Shuffle, a cheaper solid state version of the ubiquitous iPod.

In a busy start to the New Year, Apple also launched the Mac Mini, aimed at converting PC users and non-Mac owning iPod users to the brand. It’s a relative bargain too at £339.

The easy Group’s music download service Easymusic .com opened, offering tracks for just 25p.

The Post Office launched a phone service.

The BBC is closing several web sites as part of an enforced shake-up

PayPal has launched several new anti-fraud tools.

BT is trialing 2Mb residential broadband.

Virgin has launched a webmail service.

Welcome 2005!

Welcome to the first esquared newsletter of the new year. We hope you continue to find the newsletter useful, relevant and interesting. If there is a topic you'd like discussed or wish to contribute in any way, please e-mail esquared@experience-engine.co.uk.

Successful online Christmas

With one or two notable exceptions such as Tesco, Christmas 2004 for retailers has generally been one to forget. Many companies - including M&S and WHSmith - have reported gloomy sales figures, with high street sales growing by just 2.5% over November and December. However, according to figures just released by the IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group), online sales boomed during the same period with half the UK population making at least one online purchase over the Christmas period. In fact, over £3 billion was spent online which represents 6.8% of all UK retail sales and an increase of 20% compared with November and December last year.

Should employees be 'dooced' because of their Blogs?

At the risk of being accused of having a headline written in a foreign language, this article actually addresses the complex issue of employees being dismissed by their employer for the contents of their Blog (which is known as Doocing). It's certainly not a clear cut issue and has implications for freedom of speech, contract law and personnel practices - so business needs to take note.

This issue has been brought to the fore with the recent case of a Waterstones employee being fired for 'bringing the company into disrepute'. The company's view was that the employee discussed his work and the company in his blog, and often criticised its practices, and compared certain staff to popular 'Dilbert' characters, thereby harming the company's image.

The employee's view was obviously rather different, as he claimed that he was simply expressing an opinion in his own free time and considered this to be within his rights of free speech. Several people have supported this, notably an author who read about the case and wrote an open letter to the MD of Waterstones which was also published on the web.

So the question remains was the employee simply exercising his right to free speech or was he in breach of his terms of employment because he was damaging the company's reputation?

Waterstones exacerbated the situation by summarily dismissing the employee - a move which many observers have felt was rather heavy handed - with perhaps a written warning and the removal of the offending comments being considered a more appropriate response. Regardless of whether Waterstones acted correctly or not, the resultant publicity has probably been even more damaging than a little-read blog. The case has now made headlines across the media including The Scotsman, The Guardian and BBC Radio.

Another high profile case, this time in the US occurred with an airline stewardess who posted photographs of herself in her uniform on her blog. In her case, she was dismissed because her contract specifically stated that she should not be photographed in her uniform.

Both cases have interesting implications for employment law. Should contracts of employment now include specific clauses for the publishing of blogs? Of course most contracts cover inappropriate behaviour, particularly for uniformed staff, which should cover this kind of issue, but perhaps it needs to be made more explicit - either within the contract itself or by employers providing employees with better guidelines outlining what is expected of them?

So should a company be able to protect its brand and reputation by stopping employee's blogs? Or is it a breach of freedoms that we all hold very dear? It's an argument that's bound to run - and one that we can see both points of view - it would be interesting to hear what our readers think. If you have an opinion, please e-mail esquared@experience-engine.co.uk.

http://www.woolamaloo.org.uk/
http://queenofsky.journalspace.com/

Evil Twins exploit lax security

People using wireless or wi-fi connections are being warned about fake wireless hotspots or access points that behave like legitimate ones but can give hackers access to sensitive materials. This latest online security threat has received a tabloid-friendly moniker of "Evil Twins".

To access the web via wi-fi, a wireless connection needs to be made between your laptop and a base station. The new threat comes about when a hacker jams a base station by masking its signal with their own stronger signal. The hacker can then impersonate the base station without the end user's knowledge and can then monitor any activity that takes place.

Most usage involves general browsing which is not of much use to the hacker, but if you were to log onto a secure web site or access your online banking, the hacker can record passwords and other private details which can leave you open to fraud.

As with many security threats, users can avoid many problems by ensuring that they switch on the security measures provided by their wi-fi device. Unfortunately most devices ship in their most unsecured mode and many users don't bother to change these default settings. Our advice is to make sure that you do enable the highest possible security settings, and if you're unsure of the security of a wi-fi hotspot, then don't use it for sensitive data.

Only on the web:

Finally a foolproof way to protect your laptop from theft when left in your car, assuming the thieves aren't hungry that is…
http://www.humanbeans.net/powerpizza/

About:

Esquared is a regular digest of news, opinion and developments within interactive communications which we find interesting and hope you will too. If you want more information about anything that we mention, or have any comments, please call us on 01992 500990 or e-mail esquared@experience-engine.co.uk.