Maiden e-G8 forum kicks off

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has opened the first e-G8 forum in Paris, reports the BBC.

The event brings together leading figures from the technology industry to discus the impact of the Internet. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and Google's Eric Schmidt are among those due to speak.

Critics have claimed the e-G8 is too focused on handing Internet control to companies and governments.

Microsoft has unveiled its newest Windows Phone release, Mango, which is set to debut on handsets by the second half of this year, writes Computing.co.uk.

The beta version of Mango became available for free download on Windows 7 handsets from yesterday.

“Seven months ago, we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more,” says Andy Lees, president of the mobile communications business at Microsoft. “With Mango, Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort.”

New legislation will be introduced in the UK tomorrow that regulates the use of cookies, but many organisations remain unaware of how to comply with the so-called e-Privacy directive, according to V3.co.uk.

Changes to the EU Electronic Communications Framework, as it's officially known, specify that online businesses must get the explicit consent of Web users to install cookies from 26 May.

However, Alex Brown, a partner at international law firm Simmons & Simmons, says a large number of his clients are still asking questions about how the regulation should be implemented.

Server peddlers and their reseller partners the world over are breathing sighs of relief as their first-quarter bonus cheques now seem safe and sound, according to a report by the box counters at IDC, reveals The Register.

In the first quarter, worldwide server revenue rose by 12.1%, to $11.9 billion, the fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth after the bottom fell out of the systems racket in late 2008 and early 2009.

Server unit shipments also continued to rise, hitting 1.9 million machines - although with growth of only 2.5%, virtualisation across all server types is having a downward impact on server shipments.