9th January 2004 Archive

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A hard drive smaller than an inch

CES Toshiba aims HD at phones, cameras

With solid state memory reaching the gigabyte base line, Toshiba has unveiled a tiny hard disk that's smaller than an inch. The 0.8 inch hard drive - that's about the width and thickness of an MMC or SD card - will come in 2GB and 4GB sizes, spins at 3600 rpm, and will ship in volume this Fall. Who'll want one? It isn't just …

Personal 9 Jan 2004, 01:20
Verizon trumps Wi-Fi with 500 k/bits nationwide

CES Business bundle

Stateside CDMA carrier Verizon is breaking open the piggybank to roll out its high speed cellphone service nationwide this year. CEO Ivan Seidenberg made the announcement at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Verizon announced a limited deployment of CDMA EV-DO in Washington DC and San Diego in September, with an …

Mobile 9 Jan 2004, 02:25
Yahoo! and Philips in Streamium TV

CES Wireless entertainment

Yahoo! is to provide much of the content of Streamium TV, which was introduced this week by Philips at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Through a broadband connection, Philips allows consumers to access video and audio content, as well as images through a wireless or wired Ethernet connection from a PC or …

Personal 9 Jan 2004, 10:58
Misco pulls plug on Scotland

50 jobs go in Greenock

Fifty jobs have been lost in Greenock following the closure of the Scottish sales office of Misco. Staff at the reseller were told late Wednesday afternoon of the closure. Misco, which is part of Systemax Europe Ltd, will instead consolidate its sales operation in two locations in Northampton and London. A 70,000 square foot …

Channel 9 Jan 2004, 11:06
Dell in front line of War on Terror™

No PDAs for al-Qaeda, that's for sure

We're relieved to report today that al-Qaeda will not be sourcing PDAs online from US websites, well not from Dell at least. Reader Stephen Mills alerted us to the company's stringent security checks which vet potential purchasers. As a result, we can sleep sounder in our beds safe in the knowledge that Osama bin Laden will not …

Bootnotes 9 Jan 2004, 11:09
Intel takes Centrino to consumer electronics

Let's work together

The main thrust of Intel’s chip push will be focused on the consumer market this year and this week saw president Paul Otellini setting out the chipmaker’s stall in a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company has set up a $200m venture capital fund within its Intel Capital division to invest in …

Personal 9 Jan 2004, 12:06
Apple claims storage price lead

RAIDing party

Apple this week claimed it has leapfrogged the price performance of storage systems from Sun, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and EMC and is offering its new RAID storage subsystem for Windows and Linux as well as the native Mac Unix OS. The Xserve RAID is a rackmounted system delivering 3.5 terabytes of storage capacity, with throughput …

Personal 9 Jan 2004, 12:06
Motorola shows new spirit of innovation

But Nokia upstages with Q4 upgrade

All eyes will be on Motorola to see whether it can make 2004 a recovery year under its new CEO Ed Zander. Zander himself has been low key so far, keen not to over-inflate expectations of a turnaround that is sure to be prolonged and painful. But the world’s second largest cellphone maker started the year with some interesting …

Mobile 9 Jan 2004, 12:31
Gov.uk fails to communicate with e-citizens

Sites need 'immediate attention'

The Government's big idea to deliver its services digitally has once again taken a thumping after a report found that many of the Government's Web sites are muddled and confusing. The problem is so bad that six in ten of the Government's 31 "flagship" sites are in need of "immediate attention in one area or another". And …

Music and Media 9 Jan 2004, 12:32
Broadcom jumping the gun with pre-standard 802.11n?

If history is anything to go by...

Broadcom looks set to release pre-standard silicon based on the emerging 802.11n fast Wi-Fi standard, aiming to repeat its successful gamble on early release of 802.11g products last year. Meanwhile, GlobespanVirata (GSV) is the latest Wi-Fi chipmaker to pre-empt 802.11n by releasing ‘standards-plus’ products that turbocharge …

Wireless 9 Jan 2004, 12:34
CAN-SPAM means we can spam

'No effect' on junk mail

A miniscule proportion of unsolicited commercial email complies with US Federal anti-spam laws introduced this month, according to a survey published yesterday. Email security firm MX Logic found that of a random sample of over 1,000 unsolicited commercial emails received during the first week this year only THREE of the …

Security 9 Jan 2004, 12:55
Lamo pleads guilty to NY Times hack

Faces jail

Hacker Adrian Lamo plead guilty Thursday to federal computer crime charges arising from his 2002 intrusion into the New York Time internal network, and faces a likely six to twelve months in custody when he's sentenced in April. In a plea deal with prosecutors, Lamo, 22, admitted to cracking the Times network and recklessly …

Security 9 Jan 2004, 13:09
So why did Pervasive acquire Data Junction?

Show me the synergy

Pervasive last month acquired Data Junction. The question is: why (asks Phil Howard of Bloor Research)?. Pervasive, like Hewlett-Packard, started life in a garage, though in the case of Pervasive it was in the 1980's. It eventually (albeit under another name) became well-known as the developer of Btrieve, before it was acquired …

Hardware 9 Jan 2004, 13:21
T-Mobile waives £8,000 stolen mobile bill

Roaming risk

News of the British couple who had their mobile phone stolen on holiday, and subsequently faced a phone bill for GBP8,000, highlights the risk to both mobile phone users and operators associated with mobile roaming. But more could be done to avert the risk posed by phone fraudsters. The latest mobile fraud news throws up a …

Mobile 9 Jan 2004, 14:11
Woman gets ‘tits out’ online for charity

Fundraiser

A Somerset woman is getting her "tits out" to raise money for a multiple sclerosis (MS) charity. "Vix", who suffers from the illness, decided to go topless after earning a tenner for flashing her breasts in a local pub. Now, she's set up a Web site called Tits Out For Multiple Sclerosis in a bid to "raise awareness of this …

Bootnotes 9 Jan 2004, 15:19
Park and pay by mobile comes to London

Putney Chutney

Drivers in the south London area of Putney will soon be able to pay their parking fees by mobile phone. The cash-free service, which uses technology from London-based developer Parkmobile, is aimed at people who make regular trips to Putney in their car. It’s believed to be only the second such scheme in the UK. A similar …

Mobile 9 Jan 2004, 15:21
UK.gov claws deeper discounts from Oracle

OGC returns for second bite of cherry

The British government's Oracle bill should come down, following the renegotiation of licence terms with the enterprise database vendor. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) which reworked the Oracle Ts&Cs was pleased enough with its labours to issue a press release on the matter, but why publish it on December 29, guys, a …

Hardware 9 Jan 2004, 17:24
And now we are One. Many unhappy returns to SoBig

Done too much, much too young

Today is the first anniverary of Sobig, the worm family which produced such misery for email users last year. Sobig-A, like its successors, featured a combination of spamming and virus-writing techniques. As well as infecting hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, Sobig-A installed open proxies on compromised machines, …

Anti-Virus 9 Jan 2004, 17:34
Real and IBM form media software link

CES We'll beat Microsoft together

Real Networks and IBM have decided to combine parts of their software lines to make it easier for customers to deliver digital content to a variety of devices. The deal between the two companies will see Real ship its RealPlayer/Audio/Video products, Helix DRM (digital rights management) and Helix Universal Server with IBM's …

Software 9 Jan 2004, 20:40
Pocket-sized PC has PowerBook pedigree

CES OQO re-emerges

It's almost two years since we wrote about OQO's pocket-sized PC. In the twenty months that have elapsed since it 'debuted' at The Register, the OQO was a no show. But in the meantime the 'Ultra Personal' - now slated to appear later this year - has morphed into something much more usable. OQO boasts a design team that includes …

Personal 9 Jan 2004, 22:35