Brand: MacNews

TechNet, a major Silicon Valley lobbying group comprised of about 250 high-tech company executives, including Apple, has released a report asking the Bush administration to jump-start the adoption of affordable high-speed Internet access through a series of initiatives such as tax incentives to promote broadband in rural and poor areas and exercising regulatory restraint in digital content and broadband applications and services.

Handspring this afternoon reported a second-quarter loss of US$19.8 million ($14.4 million excluding one-time charges) as revenues declined 40 percent from the year-ago period to $70.5 million from $115.6 million. The loss edged analysts’ expectations but Handspring warned that product of its three-in-one Treo handheld has gotten off to a slow start due to component shortages. Some analysts, such as J.P. Morgan’s Paul Coster, see the Treo as a “make or break” item for the company.

Apple has updated its Hot Deals from Outpost.com, CompUSA, and J&R Computer World with a series of new offers and bundles.

Unsanity today released Xounds 1.1, a new version of its Mac OS X haxie that implements Mac OS 8/9’s Appearance sounds under Mac OS X. The new version adds stereo panning, configurable sound effects, adjustable volumes for individual sound effects, sounds for empty trash and insert/eject disk, bug fixes, and more. Xounds 1.1 is US$7 shareware.

Global Name Registry has announced the launch of the .name domain, a new top-level domain reserved for individuals, according to c|net. Global Name Registry is selling both Web addresses (www.firstname.lastname.name) and e-mail addresses (firstname@lastname.name) using the new top-level domain. More than 60,000 .name domains and e-mail addresses have been sold so far.