Internet

Email bullying
Email bullying is on the increase, according to research out this week from Reed.co.uk. One in six workers has been bullied electronically - with senior managers facing it more than those further down the corporate chain. The definition of a bullying email is broad: it can range from cowardly managers sending unfair comments by email because they want to avoid confrontation, to more personal insults. "It's just too easy to send an email while tempers are running high," says Dan Ferrandino, director of Reed.co.uk. It's also hard to spot when you're a bully yourself, it seems: only 4% of workers admit to bullying their colleagues via email.

Broadband

Go-faster stripes
Good news for British consumers who find the 512Kbps speed of their broadband internet connection just isn't quick enough. Cable company Telewest is trialling a service that will offer downloads speeds of 2Mbps - four times faster than BT's standard ADSL broadband connections. BT is also experimenting with a 1Mbps service it hopes to launch later in the year. Telewest is saying nothing about pricing yet, but a full roll-out of the service is expected later in the year.

Plugging in
Winchester could become the first town in England to trial broadband internet services delivered over electricity power lines. Scottish Hydro-Electric (SHE) has already announced a similar trial in Stonehaven and is now keen to experiment in a town where there is already access to rival broadband services. Users pay £25 a month to surf at speeds of up to 2Mbps.

NTL is increasing the monthly cost of its "midband" unlimited use cable internet service by 20%, from £14.99 to £17.99, from May 1. The speed of the service will rise by 17%, from 128 kilobits per second to 150Kbps.

Mobile Phones

Watch phone
Dick Tracy-style watch phones are heading for the UK now that Samsung has confirmed an autumn launch for its connected timepiece. The as yet unnamed device is slightly bigger than an average watch as it accommodates a LCD screen large enough for viewing Wap pages. It also features voice dialling, Bluetooth and a speaker phone option. Japanese phone network NTT DoComo also believes wrist mobiles could be the next big thing. Its first watch phone - the Wristomo - went on sale last week for around £300.

3G: price is too high
Britons are more concerned about the cost of using their mobiles than the telecom companies realise, according to new research from the Work Foundation. Despite widespread mobile phone ownership, the MobileUK report says mobile charges remain a concern - especially for the majority of users who pre-pay for their talk time. The report found mobile phone users already employ all kinds of tactics to cut costs. That means pricing could be a barrier for 3G phones, which cost more than £600 a year to run at the moment. Max Nathan, co-author of the research, warns: "Until 3G becomes better value, most consumers will find it an expensive worry too far."

War latest
Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera is now offering a breaking news service via text message, in both Arabic and English. This is the first time the news service, which makes headlines for its stories from inside Iraq, has offered a direct news service in English. You can sign up for the service via Al-Jazeera's website for $5.99 (around £3.99) a month.

Hardware

Lovely laptop's got a weight problem
It was announced back in January, but it took until last week for Apple's 17-inch PowerBooks to start arriving in the UK in volume.

Has it been worth the wait? Well, the sleek-skinned notebook is striking to look at: shiny outside, bright screen inside. But, remarkably, Apple advertises the machine as "ultralight" - really, it's not. Weighing 6.8 pounds, this feels more like a desktop computer replacement to lug about occasionally, rather than something to carry every day.

There are other gripes: a cramped keyboard, with a return key so small it's easy to miss, is disappointing when there's so much space free around the keyboard. And the backlit keyboard - worked by hidden light sensors - might excite the gadget fiends, but wasn't particularly effective on the machine I tried.

On the upside, the screen is fantastic, it feels much faster than my desktop iMac, and you get plenty of envious stares on the train home - even as you grimace with a sore back from hauling it around.

From £2,598.

A wired DVD player
If you are itching to watch movies you have downloaded from the internet on your TV screen, a new DVD player could provide an easy solution. Scandinavian company Kiss Technology is to launch the £300 DP-500, which includes an Ethernet connection and support for DivX - the leading compressed video format for the PC. To view movies stored on a hard disk on the TV screen, or listen to internet radio stations or MP3 files, owners run a connection between the player and the PC. Future versions of the player will include a hard disk and may be able to join a wireless network.

Smart MP3 player
Sony Ericsson has come up with a neat twist on the Bluetooth headset - it has teamed one up with an MP3 player. The HBM-30 MP3 player can store up to an hour's worth of tunes on its accompanying 64MB Memory Stick Duo storage card. Yet it automatically mutes when a call comes in, with the person's ID displayed on the gadget's screen. If they choose to respond to the call, the Bluetooth wireless connection means user can talk without having to remove their phone from their pocket or bag. The player goes on sale in May, but there are no details of prices yet.

Privacy

DNA warning
The Home Office's plans to extend the collection of DNA samples could mean that up to 44% of men and up to 13% of women could eventually end up on the national database, a privacy expert has warned. The government's plans, announced last week, allow retention of DNA samples and fingerprints from everyone arrested. Previously, this only applied to those charged with an offence, and the national database currently holds 1.8 million DNA samples. Dr Chris Pounder, a senior criminal consultant in privacy from the law firm Masons, has warned that the move could "change the nature of society".

· What's New is edited by Neil McIntosh, with contributions from Ashley Norris and SA Mathieson.