2nd December 1999 Archive

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Ingram late filing accounts

No big deal, says distie, we're working on 'em now

Ingram Micro UK is facing a fine for the overdue filing of its accounts. The distributor's financials for the year ended 31 December 1998 were due at Companies House by the end of last month. But according to Companies House, Ingram has neither submitted the figures nor applied for an extension. But the distribution giant only …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 08:19
Fujitsu Siemens hands over server manufacturing

Second major outsourcing announcement in recent weeks

Fujitsu Siemens Computers is to outsource server production in its German plant in Padborn to Flextronics International. The company will not relinquish control of the research and development or the sales and marketing of the advanced network products, but it will pass the manufacturing and logistics facilities in Germany to …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 08:20
Coppermine bug a marchitectural disaster

Analysis Intel yields are the Coppermine issue

Now that the "respectable" news wires have picked up on our story yesterday (you know who you are) about the bug that means you have to switch your PC on twice, it's worth taking a longer look at the implications for Intel and for people able to buy Coppermine processors. We note that several of these wires have run, verbatim, …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 09:31
HP hopping mad at Merced-partner Intel

It's not the only major vendor that's cross

Sources close to Hewlett Packard confirmed yesterday that it has expressed its displeasure to long-standing partner Intel over supplies of the ill-fated Coppermine processor. But although HP is hopping mad that it, like other major vendors, was given very little advance information when Intel launched the Coppermine family on …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 10:04
Faces will go red over digital signature crack

So much for secure European Union transactions

As we reported yesterday, crackers have managed to break apart the chip that powers Siemens digital signature card, posing questions about the European Union's recent ratification of the standard. Now we have received details of the disassembled file together with comments from Matthias Brüstle, who posted a TeX file on a German …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 10:28
AOL plans mobile phone instant messenger

Tegic purchase signposts next expansion area

AOL has boosted its "AOL Anywhere" strategy with the acquisition of Tegic Communications, a Seattle-based outfit specialising in wireless text messaging. Tegic builds smart software that can be used by cellphones to allow single key entry of text messages, thus making it a lot easier to use them, and AOL intends to work with the …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 11:27
Fujitsu Siemens goes gunning for HP, IBM

Sends message to channel -– we're on your side

Fujitsu Siemens UK is to try and poach resellers from rival vendors via a channel-only sales policy. Outlining the company's strategy for the next three years, newly appointed president of the vendor's UK and Ireland operations, David Teague, said the company would stick to selling all kit –- except mainframes –- through …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 11:30
Smutty emailers sacked at New York Times

Was Big Brother watching, or did someone snitch?

The New York Times embarked on a mass firing this week after staff were discovered sending "offensive" and smutty emails. All 23 sacked employees worked at the newspaper's administrative departments, based in Virginia and had their actions uncovered when the company intercepted internal emails. Russell Lewis, president and CEO …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 12:14
Non-Intel Processor Serial Numbers around for 20 years

We're all doomed

Chipzilla's much-maligned PSN is not the first system serial number. Sun has had a hardware serial number coded into each system (as have most Unix hardware vendors) since the early 80s. Most large (aka expensive) Unix software is usually locked to a certain system serial number to prevent piracy. "Sun puts a serial number -- …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 12:19
Sony steps on gas to get Palm-based products out quickly

We want to ship soon as possible in 2000, says company exec

Sony's crash programme to develop PalmOS-based devices looks set to bear fruit early next year, the company told attendees of the PalmSource Tokyo Summit conference this week. "We hope to have our first offering ready for release at the earliest possible date in 2000," said Sony executive Masafumi Minami. Sony was at PalmSource …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 12:31
Pentium III found on chick's navel

Is there no end to Chipzilla's winning ways?

Intel yesterday announced that a Pentium III CPU has been turned into a fashion accessory. (Is it a Coppermine processor? Ed) We have, in front of us as we write, a picture of a lady's navel and next to it a Pentium III designed by Icelandic jewellery artist Sigridur Sigurjonsdotter, although we don't think it's her navel in …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 12:54
Nortel allies with France's Cegetel on wireless Web

3G system to begin testing next year

Nortel and French private telecoms operator Cegetel have teamed up to develop third generation (3G) broadband wireless networks for the French market. Cegetel is the number two wireless operator in France, and following deregulation has been expanding into fixed telephony. The Nortel-Cegetel deal, which takes the form of a …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 13:08
Motorola slims chip transistors to quarter of current size

Faster, smaller, cooler CPUs to follow -- hurrah!

Motorola scientists have devised a scheme to shrink the size of the semiconductor chip transistors by a factor of four. Now, The Register doesn't pretend to be expert in matters of semiconductor physics, but the gist of Motorola's discovery appears to be the use of new substances that make each transistor's gate -- the bit that …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 13:12
Big bucks URL is the business(.com)

Address sold for $7.5m

A Londoner yesterday missed out on the cyber domain name sale of the century. This unnamed person sold the rights to the Web address business.com for $150,000 two years ago to buyer Marc Ostrofsky. Yesterday Ostrofsky sold the URL for a cool $7.5 million (£4.6 million), making it the universe's most expensive virtual address. …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 13:32
Sony to sell digital music online before Christmas

Japan-only site to go live 22 December

Sony will open its first Internet-based digital music delivery service -- dubbed Bitmusic -- on 20 December. Aimed exclusively at Japanese listeners, Bitmusic will offer an initial batch of 44 singles from Sony Music artists. Whenever singles are released through record stores, they will also be made available on Bitmusic, …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 14:09
Amazon denies misleading discount claims

Book RRPs left unchanged on site for up to ten weeks

Amazon.co.uk has been misleading customers about the size of the discount it offers on some its books. Following a Register investigation, the British branch of the mammoth online bookstore was found claiming discounts of around £35 on certain titles when the real reduction was just £6. Amazon.co.uk is distancing itself from …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 14:17
Apple drops Yikes mobo for Sawtooth

And upgrades graphics to Rage 128 Pro

Apple has finally dropped its Yikes-based Power Mac G4 and filled out its line of professional-oriented desktops with models based on the more advanced Sawtooth mobo. Yikes was a version of the blue'n'white Power Mac G3's motherboard, knocked up by Apple engineers to allow the Mac maker to ship a bottom end G4 using components …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 14:38
UK Apple Expo 2000 is toast – official

Organiser to break news to exhibitors this week

The plug has finally been pulled on Apple Expo 2000. When Apple bailed out of the UK show, then due to be held at the end of March 2000, we wondered whether the show would be dropped. Its absence from last year's Apple Expo/Total Design Technology Show played a big part in that event's failure. So it came as no real surprise …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 15:14
Why worry about the death of Apple Expo?

Opinion If past UK shows are anything to go by, it's good news

The hoo-hah over Apple's decision to abandon the UK's Apple Expo 2000 to focus all its attention on the Paris-hosted show is understandable but ignores one key issue: for the last five years Britain's premier (because it's the only one) Mac event has been decidedly lacklustre. Shows have their good times and their bad -- last …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 16:07
TV brings email to the masses

World CallNet to push sub-£200 sets

World CallNet -- the company that brought toll-free dial-up Net access to Britain last month -- wants to bring email to the masses with the launch of an interactive text-based service using TVs. M@ilTV is cheap, low tech, and can be used on both digital and analogue TVs -- which is exactly why its makers reckon it will take off …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 16:36
Computers are bad for your health

Latest research is a load of old Tosh

Kitting the office out with new PCs makes workers disloyal and want to quit. These are the findings of research by Toshiba into the effect on employee morale of upgrading IT equipment in the workplace. The Japanese vendor found that staff resent new technology and that it increases stress and dents enthusiasm. Almost 60 per cent …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 16:48
Another OEM win for Flextronics

Never heard of them? You have now…

Flextronics International has netted a deal to make kit for Psion Computers, the US company's second IT outsourcing agreement this week. Flextronics will make Psion's Series 5mx product and assemble printed circuit boards for the Series 7. It will also be responsible for the final configuration and packaging of the company's new …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 17:20
CallNet to re-open registration site

Floodgates open, crowds pour in -- it won't be a pretty sight

CallNet 0800 said it would allow people to register for its toll-free Net access service again before Christmas. The ISP shut down its registration service a fortnight after launching the product in Britain because it was overwhelmed by the sheer number of Net users looking to cash in on the service. More kit is being installed …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 17:32
Power supply fault prompts Psion warning

Series 7 owners alerted to potential problem

Psion has issued a warning to owners of its Series 7 handheld computers about a potential fault. According to the company's Web site, the external power supply may be faulty on certain devices. "A potential failure with the Power Supply Adapter supplied with the Series 7 product has been identified and under exceptional …

Business 2 Dec 1999, 17:45