29th May 2002 Archive

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Vodafone sees picture emails as killer app

Magic bullet

ComputerWire Staff Vodafone Group Plc sees the exchange of pictures by mobile phones - pioneered by its J-Phone operation in Japan - as the killer application in the coming year that will help drive double-digit revenue growth. The world's largest mobile carrier has put 3G on the back burner and does not expect a mass …

Mobile 29 May 2002, 06:43
Handspring launches Color Treo

Domino must wait

Handspring Inc has launched a color version of its Treo 270 Palm OS-based integrated voice and PDA device, which could help to boost interest in its Communicator devices. However, users hoping to access Lotus Domino email may have to wait until the end of the year. Mountain View, California-based Handspring said the new …

Personal 29 May 2002, 06:43
ICANN to lose CEO, key staff

Bye then

The Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers is looking for a new CEO and chief policy officer, following the announcement yesterday of two imminent resignations. The departures come as the organization, which partly regulates the domain name industry, undergoes a radical structural overhaul. Next March, 64-year-old …

Media 29 May 2002, 06:44
Vulture Central SETI@Home team

Site News We're checking

Vulture Central, The Register's SETI@Home team, disappeared at the weekend. Thanks to everyone who alerted us. We don't know yet what happened but we do have a theory. We'll check it out and see what we can do to get the team restored. In the meantime, apologies all around. Please bear with us. ®

Site News 29 May 2002, 07:33
Samsung cranks up 1066 RDRAM

'Surging demand'

Yesterday, Samsung pumped up DDR-II, an upcoming competitor to RDRAM. Today, the DRAM maker is displaying its memory-agnostic laurels by promoting Rambus RDRAM. The company is to ramp up production of new 1066MHz RDRAM RIMM modules, to satisfy "surging demand" from makers of PC, workstations and serious gaming machines. Intel …

Channel 29 May 2002, 08:55
FBI's Carnivore-lies may have blown bin Laden inquiry

Bad, bad little people

Fundamental design flaws in the FBI's infamous Carnivore packet sniffer have led to the destruction of evidence related to a suspect possibly involved in Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network which had been obtained legally under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant, the watchdog group EPIC has learned. The FBI …

Security 29 May 2002, 09:37
Tennis star aces MS over faked nude pix

New balls please...

Steffi Graf has won a legal action against Microsoft Germany, which it emerges has been the custodian of what Spiegel Online delightfully describes as "verbotene pornobilder" (forbidden pornpix) of the former tennis champ. The pictures appeared, we presume, on MSN Deutschland, which a Register reality check this morning reveals …

Bootnotes 29 May 2002, 10:36
Market pans MMO2 results

Big Bother

MMO2 saw its shares slide this morning as BT's former wireless division posted its first full year results. Turnover for the year to March 31 rose 11 per cent to £4.28 billion although some analysts were disappointed that the growth was not higher. Pre-tax loss rumbled in at £873 million. The number of MMO2 customers …

Business 29 May 2002, 10:37
Sun offers free Solaris 8/9 OE on DVD

No, we don't know why either

In the week that Sun's StarOffice ceases to be free, the company in its infinite wisdom is running a promo for Solaris whereby you can get a free copy of Solaris OE (version 9 for Sparc, or 8 for Intel) on DVD shipped to you. But we're sure it makes sense to somebody in marketing. Solaris 8 binaries have been available for free …

Software 29 May 2002, 11:12
Royal Mail pulls plug on ViaCode digital certificate

ViaCode returned to sender, revenues too low

The Royal Mail has pulled the plug on its Viacode digital certificate business after it failed to reach profitability. A spokesman for Royal Mail confirmed a statement by the British Chamber of Commerce, which resells the service, that ViaCode is to cease trading due to "slow development of the market and the company's …

Media 29 May 2002, 13:40
BT hi-speed sat trial kicks off

Painful

BT has named five companies to trial its new high-speed Internet satellite service. Nildram, PlusNet, Eclipse Internet, izR Solutions and KB Media (who they?) are set to begin a six month trial of the service, which is designed to appeal to small businesses and high-use home users unable to hook up to an existing ADSL or cable …

Media 29 May 2002, 13:45
Red card for Mac and Linux users on World Cup clips site

Updated Offsite rule upsets Apple footy fans

Mac or Linux users will be unable to use a service that allows football fans to catch up with highlights from World Cup games. The video highlights (around four minutes long per match), make up one portion of FIFAworldcup.com's premium subscription service, which costs $19.95. The decision to omit live feeds of matches (a …

Media 29 May 2002, 13:48
Knock-down Unix mouth-waterer from IT-minds

Unix Network Programming at 30 per cent off

This week's key title from Reg associate IT-minds.com is an old classic from the master of Unix networking, Richard Stevens. Unix Network Programming Volume 1 is the only guide to Unix network programming APIs you'll ever need. Whether you write Web servers, client/server applications, or any other network software, you need to …

Site News 29 May 2002, 13:50
Europe to throw cash at broadband rollout

Oi, over 'ere

The European Commission (EC) wants to spend billion of euros in rolling out broadband to some of Europe's poorest areas. The EC reckons the cash from its "structural fund" and the use of "financial incentives" will help Europe meet its target to deploy broadband in a bid to make Europe the "world's most competitive and dynamic …

Media 29 May 2002, 14:46
Intel and BTo join hands to push broadband

Welcome to one another

BTopenworld is teaming up with Intel to flog its broadband service to businesses. The joint marketing programme will give dealers the chance to push Pentium PCs together with broadband Net access. Dealers will be able to play around with financial incentives to tempt punters to take the package, and they can offer six months …

Broadband 29 May 2002, 15:55
UK gets new E-minister

With industry experience? Shurely shome...

E-minister Douglas Alexander has been shunted to the Cabinet Office as part of the Government's reshuffle following yesterday's resignation of Transport Minister Stephen Byers. Alexander has been replaced by Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham. The former schools minister worked for 15 years in the computing and telecoms industry, …

Media 29 May 2002, 16:10
Protocol builds bridges from phones to the Net

Roadmap for VoIP

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) have given interim approval for a technology that builds a bridge between the public switched telephone network and the Internet. Voice on IP networks today operates by translating telephone numbers to IP addresses and placing an H.323 or …

Data Networking 29 May 2002, 17:16
Linux distros to unite

Updated RedNot?

Linux distributors including Caldera, SuSE and TurboLinux are expected to join forces tomorrow to unite on a common distribution. The news was scooped by eWeek's Peter Galli, under the headline Linux vendors gang up on Red Hat, which gets to the point pretty well. Galli was told that the alliance hinges on a common distro. …

Business 29 May 2002, 18:08
Nokia goes direct with US smartphone

Target ... Elbonia

As of this morning, US buyers can purchase Nokia's 9290 Communicator via the web, with Nokia telling us that deliveries should be fulfilled within a week or so. "It's the first time we're selling a phone directly to the end user," a spokesperson from Nokia US in Austin, TX told us today. "Although we have sold accessories …

Personal 29 May 2002, 21:40