A few days ago, Microsoft announced that it will be going into a partnership with the British Telecom (BT Group) to provide Xbox 360 consoles with on-demand programming. While the service will not need the broadband TV service's set-top box, it seems that the setback is that the console will not be able to watch or record live TV. Details in the full article.

The partnership between BT Group and Microsoft has been rumored many times before ever since big MS announced IPTV for the Xbox 360. Given the services and functions of the two, one can't really help but see the connection.

Those rumors come to a close today as Microsoft finally confirmed the partnership during CES 2008. More details after the jump!

The misery of going through some really terrible tech support. Hopefully, all this will change, especially with Vodafone's recent move. The fixed-line broadband internet market in the UK is about to experience some serious ripples of change now that mobile phone giant Vodafone has struck a deal with the telecoms firm BT Group. In this agreement, Vodafone aims to squeeze into the broadband market and provide some "bundled" services to their customers. If all goes well, Vodafone hopes to launch these services by the end of the year.

OK, so what does that mean? What kind of services are offered? Well, there's bulky research that shows that customers are demanding really good tech support in broadband services. So what Vodafone is doing with the BT Group is that they're offering higher quality of service to customers. They haven't said anything specific yet, but sources point strongly to tech support and internet services.

This kind of move is not uncommon in Britain, though. Carphone Warehouse and BSkyB have already announced cut-back prices for broadband bundles. And now with Vodafone in the mix, the competition is reaching a whole new level. However, regardless of where this competition is going, let's all just hope that this move by Vodafone will trigger a domino effect to improve tech support services internationally.

Mobile phones and PDAs are all the rage right now, but that doesn't mean that your regular old home phones are gonna be biting the proverbial dust any time soon. Evidence of this is the release of the Mango, a stylin' new cordless phone from BT.

The Mango comes with a SIM card reader so you can transfer all your contact numbers from your mobile easily to it onboard memory which can hold up to 255 entries. It comes with a hands-free kit and has a built-in digital answering machine. As with probably all phones these days, the Mango has caller display, call waiting, and call transfer. It has an effective range of 300 meters, so unless you live with Monty Burns, the Mango will work from pretty much anywhere in your house.

Yeah, maybe it does bear a passing resemblance to the offspring of a Nokia N91 and an air conditioner remote, but gosh darn it, it's orange and white! The color scheme is pretty pleasing - reminds us of mangoes and cream. Mmm-mm! Plus you can even turn it into a nifty little conversation piece when you're not using it. Simply pop the handset back in its cradle and the number keys disappear.

The BT Mango is available in the UK for £60 a pop. If you're shopping around for another cordless phone, check out this previous QJ article.

Cornwall in Southern Britain has the distinction of having an internet cafe that offers a super duper fast connection at 100 megabits per second (Mbps). Computers at Goonhilly satellite station boast of 61 antenna dishes that allow connections 50 times faster than a typical broadband service. Thanks to BT's global internet protocol network (where the computers are connected), huge files can now be downloaded at high speeds.

Adrian Hosfor of BT said, "It would be possible to use the cafe's computers to download in less than 15 minutes a file the equivalent size of the DVD version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, with its 19,000 illustrations, 629 audio and video clips and 100,000 articles." In a normal broadband connection, the file download can take up to 5 hours.

The best part? The service is free to visitors!