BBC reveals new online presence

The BBC will unveil redesigned news and sport Web sites next week, with a renewed focus on embedded video and other interactive content, says Computing.co.uk.

The broadcaster says placing video links within the text of a news story, rather than in a separate media player, makes viewers 10 times more likely to view a clip. The new site will also give users the option to share videos with others, or to paste content on their own pages.

"This is the start of a rolling programme to refresh our sites and introduce exciting new designs and features across our services," said Pete Clifton, BBC head of editorial development for multimedia journalism.

Some 42% of data centre managers expect to run out of electricity within two years, and 39% say they will exceed cooling capacity within the same period, reports Computing.co.uk.

The Uptime Institute conducted a survey of 311 data centre managers in the US earlier this month. Every respondent reported they were running out of power and cooling capacity, with some expecting to hit current limits earlier than others.

The result is that all data centres will have to spend considerably more money on electricity to power and cool equipment in the future, with ongoing power and cooling costs set to exceed server purchase price for the first time in less than two years, according to the survey.

Motorola will split into two companies, one making mobile devices and the other making network infrastructure, says IT World.

The companies will operate separately and be publicly traded. Motorola expects the split to take place in 2009, if it gets the necessary approvals. "Everyone agrees Motorola had to do something; the split will relieve some of the pressure from stockholders," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight, who at first glance thinks the split makes sense.

The decision follows a review of the company's mobile phone business, conducted by the management team, board of directors and independent advisors. Motorola is following in the footsteps of Nokia, which put its network activities into a joint venture with Siemens, and of Ericsson, which put its mobile phone business into a joint venture with Sony.

Adobe Systems will introduce Photoshop Express today, its long-anticipated Web-based image editor aimed at the millions of consumers that want a simple way to touch up, share and store photos, says News.com.

Photoshop Express, available free with 2GB of storage at www.photoshop.com/express, is a significant departure from Adobe's desktop software business and a big bet that it can make money offering Web services directly to consumers.

The application, which needs Flash Player 9 to run, pushes the limits of browser-based applications and will likely ratchet up the competition on the dozens of free and online photo-editing products available now.