WHAT’S NEW
Old Mutual has launched the world’s first service for buying, selling and switching unit trusts via your cellphone. The system, which requires you to have a WAP-enabled phone such as the Nokia 7110 or Ericsson R230s, allows Old Mutual’s existing clients to check out prices and buy and sell any of Old Mutual’s 25 unit trust funds.
WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol, which essentially is a stripped down World Wide Web, able to fit on your cellphone display. The security protocol used, on top of the built-in GSM encryption, is as strong as that used on Old Mutual’s conventional website. Perhaps even more attractive than the convenience is the 2% discount offered for online transactions. See www.oldmutual.co.za, once the company posts the relevant information.
BeOS. Be what? BeOS, or the Be Operating System is even more obscure than Linux to most people. But if you don’t like what Windows does to your PC and you’re shopping around for an alternative, this may be one of your options. Be (makers of BeOS) offers a free trial version of its OS for download, called FreeBeOS. It loads easily enough from within Windows, as long as you’ve got a good 500 megabytes free. But the actual download itself is just 40 megabytes. Setup is easy, but configuring it to work with your hardware may be a little more tricky. If you really like it, you can download the full commercial version. But there are no time limits on this one. www.be.com/products/freebeos/