UK trains get broadband

While other countries long for broadband access anywhere at all, commuters on the UK`s high-speed trains will soon have broadband access even when they travel. The UK`s Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) says it will revolutionise the UK rail industry when it starts a three-month trial of broadband technology on its high-speed trains next month.

The technology, from Swedish firm Icomera, will allow passengers with WiFi-enabled laptops to access the Internet, with no limit to the number of users at one time. GNER says early trials of the quality of GSM reception have found that when a train passes through a tunnel, the connection may be interrupted, but is not lost.

US-based Hormel Foods has launched a legal challenge with the US Patent and Trademark Office to protect the name of its tinned meat product - Spam. Hormel wants a company called SpamArrest to stop using the decades old name Spam, for which Hormel holds the trademark.

Reuters reports from Beijing that a cheap and basic wireless phone service nicknamed 'Little Smart` is proving to be a huge hit in China. The service, also called the personal access system or personal handyphone system, offers bargain rates and one-way charges.

Little Smart has at least 20 million subscribers in China and looks set to take off in India and Indonesia too. The upstart service, offered by fixed-line firms China Telecom and China Netcom, is cheaper to deploy than true mobile services because it is built on an existing fixed-line network and must remain tethered to its home base.

The system offers a growth alternative - alongside Nextel Communications` walkie-talkie push-to-talk system - to the dominant GSM and CDMA technologies.

BBC reports that a British firm, QinetiQ, has developed a 'smart` changing room that uses 3D digital cameras to assess shoppers` bodies and help them choose the most flattering outfits.

QinetiQ - formerly the Defence Evaluation Research Agency - developed the system as a spin off from work on weapon range finders. The cameras record measurements from over 1 000 points on the shopper`s body, and the data is then processed, and software matches the shopper`s body with recommended clothing styles.