3rd September 2002 Archive

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Sonera delays Finnish 3G launch

Rolls back the clock

Finnish mobile phone operator Sonera Oyj is putting back the commercial launch of its 3G service until the first quarter of 2003. The launch, which had been originally planned for September 26, appears to have been delayed because of a lack UMTS-enabled handsets, as well as other unspecified factors. However, hardware …

Mobile 3 Sep 2002, 07:31
France Telecom CEO faces axe

Mulls MobilCom future

France Telecom SA is now facing an agonizing dilemma over whether to pull the plug on its struggling German mobile affiliate MobilCom AG in a decision that will have far-reaching implications for the Paris, France-based incumbent. The future of chief executive Michel Bon is now on the line with signs that the French …

Mobile 3 Sep 2002, 07:31
Hynix creditors told to re-establish Micron talks

Election time

A senior South Korean financial official has told creditors of Hynix Semiconductor Inc to renew negotiations with Micron Technology Inc of the US, with a view to disposing all or part of the debt-laden memory chip maker before the next Korean presidential election in December. According to the Korea Economic Daily, Lee …

Mobile 3 Sep 2002, 07:32
Sun plans assault on Microsoft dominance

Software stacks up

Sun Microsystems Inc is planning a major software offensive against Microsoft Corp that is designed to unseat the company from its dominant position on the desktop and entry-level servers. Sun's plans are due to be announced at its SunNetwork event later this month, but executives of the Santa Clara, California-based …

Software 3 Sep 2002, 07:33
Psion can pay Symbian dues (true)

Teklogix cash engine

At some point the Symbian tail will wag the Psion dog, financially speaking. And then we will be in an ARM/Acorn situation. But not yet: the sometime PDA maker today said it will begin to make a profit from Symbian OS licenses once unit sales hit 15-20m per annum. In the meantime, the business continues to incur heavy costs: …

Business 3 Sep 2002, 08:56
MS Outlook digital sigs easily forged

Send Billg a spoofed email from himself

Digital signatures can easily be forged and therefore can't be trusted in Outlook because of the same certificate chaining issue plaguing Internet Explorer, researcher Mike Benham says. Benham is responsible for discovering and publicizing the IE debacle, where SSL certs can be signed by an untrusted intermediary without …

Software 3 Sep 2002, 10:49
BT broadband checker goes skew whiff

...and statistics

The online database which allows Brits to check whether they can get ADSL has gone skew whiff. ADSLguide reports that BT's broadband checker started throwing out some rather odd results, such as saying people couldn't get ADSL even when they already had it installed. Then it seems the system went completely tits up. Both the …

Telecoms 3 Sep 2002, 10:51
Net abuse top reason for the sack

How times change

Email and Net abuse at work have become the number one reason why UK employees face the sack, according to a survey out today. Research by London solicitors KLegal and Personnel Today magazine found that disciplinary cases in the last 12 months for email and Net abuse at work exceeded those for dishonesty, violence, and health …

Music and Media 3 Sep 2002, 10:54
Password guessing games with Check Point firewall

Two security flaws

Security researchers have discovered two potentially serious flaws with Check Point's flagship FireWall-1 firewall which give rise to both username guessing and sniffing issues. First, affected versions permit attackers to determine if a firewall username is valid without having to know the associated password. This enabling …

Security 3 Sep 2002, 11:21
Venezuela eliminates govt. software piracy

Going open source, in tribute to MS, BSA

Venezuela has announced an official policy of preferring open source software products to proprietary ones in the public sector, according to an article by Linux Today's Brian Proffit. Apparently, from now on all software developed for the government must be licensed under the GPL. Even software used for Internet access to e- …

Software 3 Sep 2002, 11:52
Cable modem shipments grow

EMEA OK, OK?

Belgium, Portugal, the Nordic Countries, Switzerland and the UK all recorded high growth in the cable modem shipment market last year, according to research from Dataquest. Overall, though, the growth rate in cable modem shipments slowed compared to 2000. Dataquest found that in 2001, the EMEA (European, Middle East and Africa …

Mobile 3 Sep 2002, 12:54
Last call for Hacker Polo shirts

When we say limited we, err, say limited

OK people, a fresh batch of The Register's world-famous Hacker polo shirts in XL and medium has arrived at Cash n'Carrion. Who say's we don't respond to our readers. But that's it for this SKU, we're deleting the design. When we say limited, we mean limited. Other Hacker items in stock include a stunning fuchsia v-neck t-shirt …

Site News 3 Sep 2002, 13:32
WinXP SP1 leaked, then unleaked again – or not?

Spoilsports...

Windows XP Service Pack 1 seems to have been out for the past few hours and, contrary to our earlier report, remains out as of 4pm GMT. Sort of. As is now traditional with Microsoft service packs, a download URL for SP1 leaked out onto the web, although ordinary people aren't supposed to get access to the code until next Monday …

Software 3 Sep 2002, 14:09
Xbox Linux Project gets SuSE 8.0 running

By George, they might have got it...

The Xbox Linux Project is claiming some considerable level of success in its quest to turn Microsoft's closed box into a Linux box. It has SuSE 8.0 up and running on it (you can see some screenshots here), and in the Project's news section here it promises a tutorial on how you install SuSE on an Xbox shortly. The hardware they …

Software 3 Sep 2002, 14:37
Eircom savaged by satire site

Watch out, Net saboteurs

Campaigners in Ireland have launched a scathing attack on the country's lack of affordable and fast Internet access. A new Web site, EircomTribunal.com, rips into what it describes as the "saboteurs of the Internet development in Ireland" pulling no punches as it tears into incumbent telco, Eircom, regulator ODTR and the …

Music and Media 3 Sep 2002, 16:42
MP3 royalty assurances are worthless – Vorbis author

Curate's Ogg

Claim and counter-claim continue to muddy the waters around the issue of MP3 player royalties. In an email, Ogg Vorbis author Christopher Montgomery angrily castigated The Register and NewsForge for taking Thomson's assurances at face value, and insisted the licensing terms posted a threat to developers. The removal of explicit …

Music and Media 3 Sep 2002, 16:44
Opera for Mac OS X not a dead parrot

Hitting the cage?

Opera Software tells us that the Mac OS X version of its browser, which was last updated seven long months ago, is still under development. It is not a Norwegian Blue, has not expired and gone to meet its maker, is not pushing up daisies, has not shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir …

Mac Channel 3 Sep 2002, 17:13