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Britain enjoying digital boom

The net, mobile phones and MP3 players are revolutionising how Britons spend their time, says Ofcom's annual report.

It reveals that older media such as TV, radio and even DVDs are being abandoned in favour of more modern technology.

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Skype issues apology for outage

Net phone firm Skype says its service is up and running again after three days of "unprecedented" disruption.

The problems with the service began on 16 August and stopped millions of people logging in and making calls.

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Google Earth given celestial view

The constellations of Andromeda, Hydra and Vulpecula are now just a mouse click away for amateur star-gazers, following the launch of Google Sky.

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Big names sign up to iTunes rival

Some of the world's biggest record labels including Universal and SonyBMG have begun selling music through a new download service, challenging Apple.

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Troubled times for home networks

There are many technologies that only prove how useful they are when you actually try them.

And then there are the technologies that prove how useless they are when you actually try them.

Take for instance, home networking.

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Virtual game is a 'disease model'

An outbreak of a deadly disease in a virtual world can offer insights into real life epidemics, scientists suggest.

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Under the hood of the $100 laptop

A team of US-based researchers, backed by a billionaire, have re-invented the computer in an attempt to revolutionise education in the developing world.

The engineers who designed the energy efficient laptop have thrown out a whole host of conventional ideas in order to produce a computer that will be useful in nations where electricity is in short supply.

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Online banking boom for over 55s

The recent boom in internet banking has been greatest for people aged over 55, a report suggests, with 3.6 million of them banking online last year.

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Monster attack steals user data

US job website Monster.com has suffered an online attack with the personal data of hundreds of thousands of users stolen, says a security firm.

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Millions hit by Monster site hack

Jobs portal Monster.com has released more details about the severity of the attack on its site.

It said confidential details of more than 1.3 million people, mainly Americans, were stolen by malicious hackers who carried out the attack.

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Watching me, watching you

In the latest piece in a jigsaw of new laws, regulations and interpretations of existing laws and even the US Constitution which, taken together, provide a legal basis for the most extensive programme of domestic and international surveillance ever undertaken by a government.

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Tracking carbon through your phone

A British student has invented a way for people to track their own carbon footprint through their mobile phone.

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Online sales set record in July

Wet weather in July drove online shopping to record levels as consumers surfed the net rather than sloshing down the High Street, a report claims.

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T.rex would outrun footballer

Tyrannosaurus rex would have been able to outrun a footballer, according to computer models used to estimate running speeds of dinosaurs.

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CIA launches Facebook for spies

The CIA is to open a communications tool for its staff, modelled on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, the Financial Times reports.

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Mobile phones eroding landlines

Mobile phone use is continuing to reduce the amount of time people spend using landlines, according to a report by the UK communications watchdog.

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Illuminating the net's Dark Ages

Imagine a history of World War 2 that failed to cover the events in 1930s Germany. Conventional histories of the internet are that incomplete, according to a researcher.

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Artificial examiners put to the test

As GCSE students pick up their results this week, they may like to spare a thought for the examiners who devoted thousands of hours to marking their answer booklets.

But in future, computers could help them reclaim their summer holidays.

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PlayStation to record digital TV

PlayStation 3 (PS3) users in Europe will soon be able to record and playback digital TV on their console.

Sony has unveiled a TV tuner which plugs into the PS3 and turns it into a personal video recorder like Sky+.

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Less is more for online marking

A-level geography students whose papers are marked online have been advised to keep their answers to length.

Sceptics fear the move is technology driven and may not be a fair way of testing students' ability.

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Britons to take their work home

More than 17 million people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will do some work tasks this bank holiday, despite having the day off, a study claims.

Work tasks will include checking or sending e-mails, which 43% of respondents admitted they were likely to do, and 34% will take reading home.

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Birth of the web on BBC Scotland

It's 1997. Google is still a research project run by a couple of Stanford PhD students.

The founders of Facebook are 13, probably swapping Tamagotchis and dreaming of owning a SNES.

However, in a dusty corner of a newsroom in Glasgow a new internet star is born. Well, maybe.

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Teenage hacker unlocks the iPhone

A New Jersey teenager has unlocked the iPhone, opening the way to Apple's iconic mobile telephone being used by non-US networks

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