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MS clears out of Lebanon for now

By Bhavna Singh
Johannesburg, 18 Jul 2006

MS clears out of Lebanon for now

Microsoft is taking extra precautions during the Mideast conflict, reports CNet. The company has imposed security measures at its Israel offices, has told employees to cancel or postpone travel to Israel or Lebanon, and has cleared its offices in Beirut until the situation changes.

"We wish for a swift and peaceful conclusion to this difficult situation, and for the safety of all concerned," said a Microsoft spokesman.

Intel has not closed its several facilities in Israel, but has put in contingency plans. Employees in Haifa have also been moved to a "hardened facility" in the building. They can also work from home.

Dell announces built-in 802.11n

Dell today released the Dell Wireless 1500 draft-802 dual-band wireless mini card that can be configured for all XPS and Inspiron notebooks, reports Revolution Portal.

The built-in 802.11n card will be able to produce data transfer rates of 270Mbps and allow for twice the range when combined with an 802.11n wireless network router.

The computer giant said the high-speed wireless technology would enable new applications such as high-definition streaming and online gaming. A final product isn`t expected until 2007.

Chinese claim to have cracked Skype protocol

A blog posting claims a Chinese company has cracked Skype`s Internet telephony protocol, reports Earth Times.

The blog by Charlie Paglee, CEO of Vozin Communications, did not name the Chinese company, saying it was operating in stealth mode. If the news is true, then it has widespread ramifications for Skype since third parties can sell such products.

Skype acknowledged it was aware of the news, but shrugged it off.

BT rated UK`s best performing ADSL ISP

UK-based British Telecom (BT) has been named as best performing ADSL UK Internet service provider, according to a Net survey by Internet testing firm Epitiro, reports Techspot.

Epitiro performed a series of tests on various ISP features including download times and connection failures, and took these from 10 locations around the UK. BT came in first, followed by Virgin, Demon, AOL and then Orange.

BT scored the fastest service as a percentage of its theoretical maximum. The survey covered 10 of the UK`s biggest ADSL providers.

MS releases Vista Beta 2 build

Microsoft on Monday released another Vista Beta 2 build to address some performance issues with the code and device driver incompatibilities, reports Information Week.

Vista Beta 2 Build 5472 was made available to participants in the Windows Vista Technical Beta program, select Technology Adoption Program customers and MSDN subscribers, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft said it remains on target to ship the first release candidate of Windows Vista, RC1, by the end of this quarter.

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