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15th April 2004 Archive

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  • Christmas continues for iPod sales

    Macs down, profits steady

    Apple has reported net income of $46m on revenue of $1.9bn for the past quarter. That's slightly down from the traditionally strong Christmas quarter, but 29 per cent up from the corresponding quarter last year, when the professional market was awaiting the launch of the G5 PowerMacs. The iPod continued its festive surge, with …

    Financial News 15 Apr 2004, 00:27

  • Apple closes California plant

    Jobs stay Stateside

    235 Apple staff were marched off the premises by security guards, personal belongings in hand yesterday. The Cupertino company has closed its Elk Grove manufacturing plant near Sacramento, California where it also maintains a call center and sales office. Apple wouldn't say exactly how many jobs had been lost, but informed State …

    Financial News 15 Apr 2004, 00:29

  • X is now free of XFree86

    What's on the end of this Fork?

    A new version of the X11 windowing system, used by Unix-like operating systems including Linux, will become generally available in ten days time. This is significant as it's likely to be the version that will face most users in future distributions. Known as X11R6.7, it's the first release from the XOrg consortium. This was …

    Operating Systems 15 Apr 2004, 01:27

  • ADSL virgin seeks warm, friendly...

    Review ...installation of wireless networking

    Broadband is the future of home and small business Internet access - the difference between slow dial-up and fast always-on speeds differentiating those that can from those that can't. Better still, stick a wireless ADSL router on the end of your Broadband connection, then not only do you get fixed line access, but also wireless …

    Broadband 15 Apr 2004, 08:18

  • Getting connected to online backups

    Review One thing well

    Let's do a quick straw poll. How many of you back up your work laptop? Some have no choice - the IT department makes sure it happens. But the rest of us? Now, how many of you know someone who has lost all the data on their laptop, through theft, hardware failure or accident? Look at all those hands - it doesn't look good, …

    PCs 15 Apr 2004, 08:18

  • BT faces EC investigation over business rates

    Illegal government aid?

    BT is under investigation by the European Commission for receiving unfair government assistance. Optical networking company Vtesse made the complaint to the European Commission. It alleges that the business rates which BT pays for its local loop network are too low. Aidan Paul, chief exec of Vtesse, told The Register: "BT is …

    Broadband 15 Apr 2004, 08:21

  • ATI readies PCI Express Radeon X880 XT

    Mid-June launch

    Now that Nvidia has launched the GeForce 6800, codenamed 'NV40', graphics chip biz watchers' attention will turn toward ATI's upcoming R420 launch, expected to take place on 26 April. R420 - set to ship as the Radeon X800 Pro - is pitched directly at the 6800 and according to a report at Hard OCP, will offer comparable specs. …

    Channel 15 Apr 2004, 08:48

  • DVD Forum punts blue laser HD-DVD

    And Taiwan preps own hi-def video disc format

    The DVD Forum has begun to promote its second-generation DVD specification to Taiwanese drive manufacturers. The organisation, which oversees the DVD format, approved a blue laser-based format, to be called HD-DVD, last November. The technology came from Toshiba and NEC, rather than the Blu-ray format backed by Sony, Pioneer, …

    Peripherals 15 Apr 2004, 09:28

  • 'Java Testing and Design' at 30% off

    Site Offer Book bargains galore

    Web infrastructure is ubiquitous, and yet there has been no guide to show how your choices in design, coding, and testing impact the scalability, performance, and functionality of your Web-enabled applications - until now. A round of applause then for Java Testing and Design: From Unit Testing to Automated Web Tests, which …

    Site News 15 Apr 2004, 10:10

  • South Korea allows 3G handset subsidies

    40 per cent off W-CDMA

    Mobile Operators in South Korea will be allowed to offer big discounts on handsets for the first time. South Korea has led the field in next generation mobile services despite the ban on handset subsidies, which were prohibited in 2000. Operators will now be allowed to cut 25 per cent off the price of PDA phones and 40 per …

    Mobile 15 Apr 2004, 10:16

  • Ex-Infinium exec sues company...

    ...then withdraws suit

    A former Infinium Labs executive who this week announced he had instigated legal proceedings against the company and CEO Tim Roberts, alleging fraud and breach of contract, yesterday agreed to dismiss his lawsuit without prejudice. The case comes (and goes) less than a month after Infinium filed a complaint against website …

    Consoles 15 Apr 2004, 10:21

  • 419ers plug into plasma TV market

    Unique Estonian job opportunity

    If your job has recently been outsourced, offshored or even rightshored or bestshored, then don't despair - a unique employment opportunity is about to hit an inbox near you. Yes indeed, leading Estonian plasma TV outfit Slim Display is looking for international representatives to punt its products to a gadget-hungry world: …

    Security 15 Apr 2004, 10:31

  • Cisco thwarts WLAN dictionary attack

    Great LEAP forward

    Cisco has responded to the release of a dictionary attack tool by encouraging users to migrate to a new more secure encryption scheme for wireless LANs. The networking giant acknowledged on Monday that shortcomings with its Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP) create a mechanism for hackers to extract WLAN …

    Security 15 Apr 2004, 10:43

  • Boingo wins Linksys hotspot kit promo

    Venues lured with $300-400 a month profit claim

    Wi-Fi hotspots aggregator Boingo has become the latest WLAN player to offer a 'hotspot in a box' package to venue owners keen to hop onto the wireless Internet access bandwagon. And it reckons such sites can easily net profits of $300-400 a month if they sign up. Boingo's Hot Spot in a Box offer incorporates a Linksys wireless …

    Broadband 15 Apr 2004, 10:51

  • End of the road for EAI?

    Data federation, come on down

    To suggest that enterprise application integration (EAI) might be nearing the end of the road is both contentious and provocative, writes Bloor analyst Philip Howard. Do we really mean it? Well, yes and no. No, we don't mean that EAI as an approach will disappear or that it does not fulfil a useful function. But yes, we do …

    Applications 15 Apr 2004, 11:00

  • Working up an appetite for destruction

    Data disposal without tears

    If you're interested in the sweep of history, as I am, then you really should find the time to read through Jacques Barzun's magisterial From Dawn To Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life: 1500 to the Present. In particular, Barzun delivers a wealth of telling anecdotes that perfectly illustrate a point he's trying to …

    Storage 15 Apr 2004, 11:03

  • Real Networks 'seeks alliance' with Apple

    Join us against MS - or else

    Real Networks has invited Apple to join forces against a common enemy, Microsoft. And if it doesn't, Real will join forces with Microsoft against Apple. The power brokering was revealed in today's New York Times, on the basis of an email purportedly sent by Real CEO Rob Glaser to his opposite number at Apple, Steve Jobs. The …

    Media 15 Apr 2004, 11:19

  • Webtapping battle lines drawn

    'Significant risk to the entire Internet'

    The public comment period on a Justice Department proposal to make the Internet easier to wiretap ended on Monday with most of the filed comments tracing a clean line between two opposing camps. On the government's side, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who perform wiretaps, allied with companies who sell …

    Media 15 Apr 2004, 12:08

  • Godfather of Web awarded €1m

    Finnish honour for Tim Berners-Lee

    Tim Berners-Lee, the man whose hypertext programme paved the way for the beast they call the Web, has been honoured with an award of €1m. Sir Tim - as he is now known since his 2003 knighthood - will pick up a cheque from the Finnish Technology Award Foundation which has named the British boffin the first recipient for its …

    Media 15 Apr 2004, 12:10

  • PalmOne preps 28 April PDA updates

    Update As new Zires surface on e-tail sites

    PalmOne will launch a series of new machines on 28 April, The Register has learned, with models already starting to appear on e-tail sites. Top of the list of anticipated models are consumer-oriented Zire 31 and Zire 72 models. Details remain scarce, but both are being advertised for around $170 and $310 apiece. The two …

    Mobile 15 Apr 2004, 13:25

  • Sony pauses PSX production

    Waiting while dealers' shelves clear

    Sony has suspended production of its PSX games console-cum-personal video recorder in a bid to flush the channel of unsold stock. According to Sony officials cited by Japanese magazine Shuukan Gendai, the move is a temporary one, but they could not say when production of the machine would begin again. Whenever manufacture …

    Consoles 15 Apr 2004, 13:50

  • Murderer blogs from behind bars

    Nice little earner for 'Martin the Stutterer'

    Being in prison apparently doesn't prevent some people from running a nice little earner. The Dutch Justice department is to investigate a blog set up by Martin K., who is unusual among bloggers since he is currently banged up for double murder. In 2001, Volendam born Martin K. was sentenced to 14 years' jail for slashing the …

    Media 15 Apr 2004, 13:54

  • EMC acquires strong Q1 revenue growth

    Every ISV helps

    With three of its newly acquired software companies pulling their weight, EMC charged to one of its strongest quarters in recent memory. EMC reported $1.87bn in first quarter revenue. This marks a crisp 35 percent jump over the $1.38bn reported in the same quarter one year ago. EMC also pulled in $140m in net income in this …

    Storage 15 Apr 2004, 14:00

  • DHL mulls offshoring remainder of IT staff

    Postal giant sends jobs abroad...

    Parcel pusher DHL is considering offshoring the last remnants of its IT department. In September 2003 the Deutsche Post subsidiary announced it was moving its data centre to Prague in the Czech Republic, but reassured staff that it would retain an IT presence in Britain and Basel, Switzerland. Both centres are now at risk, with …

    Management 15 Apr 2004, 14:01

  • NetSky-V spreads on auto-pilot

    Joins assault on P2P sites

    Yet another NetSky virus arrived on the scene today. NetSky-V spreads using a well known Internet Explorer vulnerability, connected with the handling of XML pages. Instead of depending on users double clicking on infectious email attachments, the worm can spread automatically across vulnerable Windows boxes. Users can be …

    Security 15 Apr 2004, 14:08

  • Microsoft charity licence gets lukewarm welcome

    One hand clapping

    Microsoft's announcement of changes to the way it charges non-profit and charity groups for its software on second-hand machines has been criticised by refurbishers in the UK. "Microsoft Authorised Refurbishers" will be allowed to install or reinstall Windows ME and 98 onto refurbished machines they sell to not-for-profit …

    Channel 15 Apr 2004, 14:17

  • Windows Update groans under patch load

    Download stampede

    Windows Update struggled to cope with the load created by the release of four security patches on Tuesday night, prompting Microsoft to deploy extra servers to cope with demand. The four patches, three of which are critical, are designed to address 20 security vulnerabilities affecting a wide range of Microsoft software. Their …

    Security 15 Apr 2004, 15:26

  • Slim Devices slims Squeezbox prices

    Review Update Plus Reg reader feedback

    Since we ran our review, posted yesterday, of the Squeezebox wireless audio player, we've heard from the company behind it, Slim Devices, and Register readers who have their own thoughts on the gadget. Slim Devices today lowered the price of the Squeezebox from $299 to $279 (the wireless-free version drops from $249 to $199). A …

    Peripherals 15 Apr 2004, 16:02

  • Brits cheat insurance to get gadget upgrades

    Lying Low

    More than one in 20 Brits has falsely claimed that a personal technology item, such as a mobile phone, camera or walkman, was lost or stolen in order to upgrade it with a newer version. A telephone survey of 1,100 people commissioned by insurer Direct Line out today reveals that single people are more likely to make bogus …

    Mobile 15 Apr 2004, 20:23

  • Egg decorated for site accessibility in DRC study

    Five stars in disability survey

    Egg.com and Oxfam.org.uk were among just five websites praised for their excellent accessibility, following a landmark study by the Disability Rights Commission that is already influencing the Internet's standards-setting body, the W3C. City University London tested 1,000 UK-based sites on behalf of the DRC, an independent …

    Financial News 15 Apr 2004, 21:13

  • Patent Office asked to review Microsoft FAT patent

    Write open source software - and go to jail

    Microsoft's patent for the FAT file system - the basis for the company's first salvo in its licensing offensive - is to be reviewed by the US Patent Office, at the request of a free software group. Microsoft introduced its first ever intellectual property licensing program in December, having hired the senior IBM executive …

    Media 15 Apr 2004, 21:24

  • For Sun chip chief, an empty roadmap is a clean roadmap

    SPARCs fly

    Sun is putting a brave face on the cancellation of the UltraSPARC V, and Eagle, an entire family of servers designed for the processor. The Millennium chip - so called because it was originally due to be ready in 2000 - had just taped out, but two weeks ago became the latest cancellation from Sun. The multicore UltraSPARC VI …

    Servers 15 Apr 2004, 22:34

  • Sun tops off poor Q3 by axing execs

    Server brass exits stage loss

    Sun dished out a bit of the expected and unexpected when announcing third quarter results today, confirming a large loss and revealing that a number of executives have been axed or shifted within the company. Sun posted $2.7bn in revenue for the third quarter - a 5 per cent year-over-year decline from the $2.8bn reported in the …

    Financial News 15 Apr 2004, 22:52