In partnership with the European Schoolnet project, which is to be piloted in the UK, PC manufacturer Acer, will help schools in introducing a new kind of interaction between teachers and students through the use of netbooks. Acer will supply classes in the project with one netbook per student, one notebook per teacher and a server with 19in monitor for sharing all class activities.
Market analyst GfK has reported that both the small and major domestic appliances sectors continued to exhibit the positive market changes seen in recent months. In the small domestic appliances sector, shavers and electrical beauty products featured highly in recent growth lists.
Action by a coalition of organisations, including retra, has led to an appeal court defeat for Phonographic Performance (PPL), the company that licences playing music in shops. This will lead to collective savings of £5 million a year, and paybacks of £20 million of excessive charges paid by retailers over the last five years. A legal battle over these charges began after PPL dramatically increased the charges, leading to some retailers seeing their fee double in price.
A report commissioned by Kelkoo has revealed that UK consumers spent £38 billion shopping online in 2009, accounting for 30% of total European internet sales; making the UK the largest online retail market in Europe.