Dear Reader,

Welcome to another edition of the Prompt Communications newsletter. There's been much talk this week about Microsoft's announcement that it will stop providing PC manufacturers with copies of Windows XP by the end of the year, despite high demand for the operating system. Given that many businesses are reluctant to move to Windows Vista for various reasons, we wonder whether this might encourage more organisations to consider Linux as a replacement for XP. The open source operating system has been getting a lot more good press of late, and if Microsoft doesn't give its customers what they want, it's not unreasonable to expect that a growing number of them will look at alternative options.

For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, copywriting or surveys, please email me at hbutters@prompt-communications.com. We are always delighted to hear from you.

Best regards,

Hazel Butters
Prompt Communications

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Technology Update

By Sean McManus and Lance Concannon

Days numbered for Windows XP

Microsoft has said that from January 2008 it will no longer provide computer manufacturers with copies of Windows XP, which will essentially force them to sell machines loaded with Windows Vista. On the surface this might not seem like too much of a problem, but there is still a lot of demand for Windows XP amongst business customers who aren't yet ready to make the leap to Vista.

In terms of IT upgrade cycles January 2008 isn't very far away at all, and many businesses are reluctant to take on an operating system which, even eight months from now, will still be relatively immature. With this in mind, some might argue that Microsoft's withdrawal of XP is premature and in doing so the company is ignoring the wishes of a large segment of its customer base.

O'Reilly drafts code for bloggers

Following widely publicised death threats against friend and fellow blogger Kathy Sierra, publisher Tim O'Reilly has drafted a code of conduct for bloggers. Controversially, the code requires blog owners to police their comments, but does also oblige them to explain any deletions. While the spirit of only saying things online that you would say in person makes sense, banning anonymous comments would exclude many who would otherwise make valuable contributions to a debate.

Anonymity was used by those posting death threats against Sierra, but is more often used by people sharing information or views they would not want traced to them from a universal forum. Many of the code's restrictions would be considered severe limitations on a free press, including banning content that infringes on a trademark, violates an obligation of confidentiality or violates privacy.

The code of conduct comes with two badges: one like a sheriff's badge for blogs that abide by the code, and one of an exploding stick of dynamite to warn people about the kind of minefield they might be striding into where the code is not followed. While Sierra's experience has been alarming, it has also been exceptional. Most blogs hum along nicely and it's melodramatic to characterise blogs without moderation as explosive.

What do you think? Leave your comments on our blog.

Your LCD screen is now obsolete

Now that everybody's replaced their chunky old CRT monitors with nice thin LCD screens, the hardware manufacturers have come up with an even thinner screen technology. OLED (organic light emitting diode) screens have been mentioned in the technology press for a while, but until recently manufacturers haven't been able to make them big enough for any useful applications. OLED screens offer a number of benefits over LCD screens: they offer a much brighter picture with lower power consumption for a start, and they're also thinner, lighter and more flexible. Both Toshiba and Sony have recently demonstrated working OLED screens and announced plans to start producing televisions based on the technology over the next few years.

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Consumer Technology Update

By Dave Wilby

Chinese take away gaming freedom

Imagine inviting a few mates over to play online with your new Xbox 360, only to find that Tony Blair is stopping you from racking up frag bonuses! Well according to the BBC, the Chinese government has begun clamping down on the amount of time kids can spend playing online games. Official Chinese news agency Xinhua has confirmed that under-18s who play for more than three consecutive hours a day will have limits imposed, with online gaming providers in the country given three months to install the 'anti-addiction software' that will reduce the amount of points that players can score within specific gaming titles.

Online gaming is immensely popular in China, with a recent report from the China National Children's Centre claiming that 13% of under-18s who used the web were addicted to online gaming. In March China also banned any new Internet cafes from opening in 2007 in another effort to halt addiction.

Your colleagues are searching, not researching

A new survey of UK internet users conducted by YouGov claims outrageously that a million of us spend huge swathes of our lives just mindlessly surfing about on the web with no real direction or purpose. It then reveals that 70% of us fall into a habit labelled 'wilfing' (what was I looking for?) at home and at work.

It also says that a quarter of all time spent online is actually spent 'wilfing'. But don't blame the kids - the results also found that over-55s were three times as likely to 'wilf' as the under 25s! A professional life coach helpfully advised readers of Times Online: "Don't get distracted".

So be good for goodness sake

We're all slowly coming to terms with the fact that the Internet knows everything. Ask it the name of every character in The Moomins or the chronology of every manned space mission and it will come up trumps without blinking a cursor. Good, isn't it? But how happy would you be if it intuitively knew everything about you personally? Xerox believes it can now get the kind of boring demographic information about you that you normally lie about in online forms without even asking.

It reckons it can use smart browser technology to determine facts such as your age, sex and perhaps even your income by analysing the pattern of pages you choose to access on the web and comparing them to a database of surfing patterns from other users. Read all about it in the New Scientist tech blog. Who knows, just going there may raise your perceived IQ, income and geek quotient in the eyes of the all-seeing Xerox.

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US Media Report

By Kay Wilson

The biggest news of the week within the US Media was the backlash following Don Imus' racially-insensitive comments towards the Rutgers women's basketball team. While CBS has suspended Imus from the show for two weeks, General Motors, Proctor & Gamble, and other advertisers have pulled out, while MSNBC first suspended its simulcast of Imus' show for two weeks and later decided to cancel it.

An editor at CBS was fired this week after it was discovered that a video essay on libraries published on the CBS News website under Katie Couric's "Couric & Co." blog had been largely plagiarised from an article in the Wall Street Journal. The producer was not identified by CBS.

CNN revamped "American Morning", replacing the unrelated duo of Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien with fill-in anchor John Roberts and former FOX News anchor Kiran Chetry. The O'Briens will each remain with CNN as reporters.

Nancy Adler was announced as the publisher of FinancialWeek, effective April 30. Adler comes to FinancialWeek from Dow Jones & Company.

Finally, the Associated Press named Brian Melley as news editor of its Los Angeles bureau. Melley previously served as the bureau's day supervisor.

UK Media Report

By Annie Kasmai

Go>Play, the monthly magazine which covers PSP games has just been relaunched as an ezine. The new 34 page electronic magazine includes: previews, reviews, tips and cheats as well as a database of PSP games. The new version of the magazine is available as a downloadable PDF or as a PSP friendly version.

Abigail Wegner, editorial assistant at B2B Marketing, is leaving the publication to go freelance at the start of May.

Noli Dinkovski has left PrintWeek. Dinkovski was assistant features editor at the weekly print magazine. The magazine is currently recruiting for a replacement but for the time being the features editor, Simon Creasey, will be covering the role.

Best of the 'Net

By Sean McManus

MyCyberTwin

You can get it to ask visitors questions and collect the answers for you, and can even assign it to chat on Windows Live Messenger on your behalf. It's a bit sleazy that the pricing is hidden behind the registration, but since your robot can host 500 chats a month for free, we'll let them off. When well programmed, the effect is impressive. It's not hard to get George to agree that he's stupid, though.