25th October 2004 Archive

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PalmOne launches Treo 650

Leaked spec confirmed

PalmOne today introduced 'Ace', aka the Treo 650, the jazzed up successor to the 600. The launch confirms almost everything leaked out about the new smart phone to date. The 650 will indeed sport a 65,000-colour, 320 x 320 display, up from the 600's 160 x 160 screen. Bluetooth is built in, but the handset's battery is now …

Mobile 25 Oct 2004, 08:53
Consumers hit by net security jitters

Fear of fraud

A survey released this week by security technology vendor Entrust has highlighted consumer concerns about use of the internet. The results of the survey show that security concerns have not been eased by efforts that companies have taken to ensure the security of transactions made over their websites. However, where consumers …

Financial News 25 Oct 2004, 09:21
WiMAX roadshow rolls into town

First world conference set for Boston

Calling this "the dawn of the WiMAX era", Trendsmedia is kicking off the first WiMAX World Conference and Exposition, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, MA on 3-4 November, 2004. Yes, the bandwagon is rolling. But unusually, this conference isn't a cheerleader convention; it has its sceptics lined up. "For the first time …

Wireless 25 Oct 2004, 09:35
Fingerprints to become compulsory for all EU passports

Now two biometrics, and counting...

EU interior ministers are today likely to sign off regulations making fingerprinting a second compulsory biometric for passports. The latest proposed draft regulation will effectively overturn a decision made earlier this year to make only facial image compulsory, and fingerprint optional, and comes in the face of opposition …

Music and Media 25 Oct 2004, 09:53
Google passes on portal

Not interested, says Schmidt

Google is not interested in re-starting the browser wars nor is it about to become a portal, says chief executive Eric Schmidt. Speaking in today's FT, Schmidt said the firm would not take on the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo! by setting up a portal. Both ideas have been suggested as ways for Google to extend its brand and …

Music and Media 25 Oct 2004, 10:04
Mac OS X rootkit surfaces

Unpleasant Opener

One of the first pieces of malicious code targeting Apple's Mac OS X operating system has been discovered. The Mac OS X malware, dubbed Opener, is a rootkit for Mac OS X machines that contains a variety of destructive functionality including a keylogger and backdoor components. Opener (AKA Renepo-A) is a shell script that can't …

Security 25 Oct 2004, 10:06
Ofcom accused of helping premium-rate scammers

ICSTIS fires broadside in regulatory bun fight

Ofcom has been accused of issuing telephone numbers to rogue operators that rip off punters with premium-rate phone scams. The damaging accusation was made by George Kidd, the head of premium-rate telephone regulator ICSTIS, who claims that Ofcom is undermining its work to protect consumers from fraudsters. In a letter seen by …

Telecoms 25 Oct 2004, 10:37
NHS OSS white paper is 'disappeared'

Might have confused people into thinking we had a policy

In a weirdly Maoist piece of public self-criticism the National Health Service Information Authority has withdrawn a white paper on Open Source Software and the NHS. As the hole where it used to be now says: "The Information Authority regrets the publication of the internal discussion paper - Open Source. Any proposed actions …

Software 25 Oct 2004, 11:19
Firefox 1.0 limbers up for launch

Mozilla takes aim at IE

Mozilla will today launch the nearly-final version of Firefox, its open source web browser, ahead of the 1.0 product launch on 9 November. The organisation says it aiming for 10 million downloads in the 100 days after inauguration, sparking much discussion of a return to the days of the browser wars, when Microsoft, AOL and …

Applications 25 Oct 2004, 12:56
Sony Ericsson P910i smart phone

Reg review The perfect phone and PDA?

Sony Ericsson's smart phone just keeps on getting better. A year ago, the P900 addressed many of the P800's shortcomings in a slick, business-friendly redesign. Now, a further 12 months down the line, the P910i smartens up the P900 and bumps up the spec. to boot. First, the hardware. The P910i's memory has not only been upped …

Reviews 25 Oct 2004, 13:11
ECS unveils nForce 4 Ultra board

Extra SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, audio thrown in

Elitegroup today launched a motherboard based on Nvidia's nForce 4 Ultra chipset and geared toward Socket 939 Athlon 64 CPUs. The KN1 Extreme provides PCI Express support for regular add-in cards and graphics boards. It also offers Serial ATA with RAID, adding a second, SiS-derived controller to the four-drive controller within …

System Builder 25 Oct 2004, 13:29
Guardian US vote wheeze down in flames

Pinko UK broadsheet run out of town on a rail

UK broadsheet The Guardian has called a day on its US presidential election letter writing campaign, declaring Operation Clark County a success, but reporting substantial flaming and a hacking attack. So it does look a bit like they decided the campaign was more trouble that it was worth. The scheme matched non-Americans with …

Music and Media 25 Oct 2004, 13:50
Harry Potter games outfit loses its magic

Argonaut calls in administrators

Argonaut Games plc - the UK games developer which brought Harry Potter to the video screen - has called in the administrators ten days after suspending its shares. David Rubin and Asher Miller were appointed joint administrators of three of Argonaut's trading subsidiaries - Argonaut Software Limited, Just Add Monsters Limited …

Financial News 25 Oct 2004, 13:53
UK WISP offers two weeks' free Wi-Fi access

Tune in to the right (railway) station

UK wireless ISP Broadreach Networks, which operates under the ReadyToSurf brand, today inaugurated a two-week free-for-all for users connecting to its Wi-Fi hotspots in London's 12 major railway stations. The move follows rival WISP T-Mobile's agreement with BT's Wi-FI division, BT Openzone, to allow their customers to roam …

Wireless 25 Oct 2004, 14:13
Small.biz goes a bundle on SBS 2003?

Microsoft packs in the extras

It’s been nearly a year since Microsoft launched a Small Business Server - a strategic move into a market that everyone wants a piece of. For those who missed the announcement, SBS 2003 is a normal Microsoft server with a load of extra stuff bundled in – Exchange and SharePoint Services, and for anyone who still uses such …

Small Biz 25 Oct 2004, 14:34
BT completes B.I.C. Systems Group buy-out

That's it

BT has completed the £17m acquisition of Northern Ireland IT Company, B.I.C. Systems Group Ltd, after being given the green light by the Competition Authority in the Republic of Ireland. The sale was given the OK more than a week ago and was completed last week, the UK's dominant fixed line telco said in a statement today. BT …

Telecoms 25 Oct 2004, 14:41
Farting robot wins toy of the year

Far 2 Dee 2

A toy robot designed by a former NASA engineer has been named Britain's toy of the year by Hamley's, the nation's finest/most expensive toy shop. The Robosapien claims to be the first robot based on "biomorphic robotics". It is also almost definitely the first robot capable of both farting and belching. If these forms of …

Bootnotes 25 Oct 2004, 14:44
Sony launches 1GB Flash MP3 player

Yes, really MP3

Sony will ship its latest Flash-based music players at the end of November 2004, the company said today. Both offered under the Network Walkman brand, the two new players, the NW-E95 and NW-E99 offer 512MB and 1GB of storage - the latter enough for 46 CDs, the consumer electronics giant claimed, presumably encoded in ATRAC3 …

Mobile 25 Oct 2004, 14:49
Cisco adds scrambler to IP telephony

Peace of mind for Secret Squirrels

Cisco is beefing up the security of IP telephony kit with an upgrade to its software available from today. A new version of the network giant's IP PBX software, Cisco CallManager 4.1, comes with new enhanced encryption facilities, including Voice over Virtual Private Network (V3PN) functionality. Encryption features had …

Enterprise Security 25 Oct 2004, 15:14
NASA re-schedules Swift launch

Probing the secrets of Gamma Ray Bursters

The launch date for NASA's Swift satellite - designed to detect and analyse gamma ray bursters - has been delayed thanks to a faulty third stage rocket on an unrelated launch. The mission has been given a new provisional launch date of 11 November. Scientists involved in the project expect this to be confirmed within days. …

Science 25 Oct 2004, 15:16
BT ponders music downloads for payphones

Boon for iPod muggers?

UK telco BT could soon be selling digital music through its 70,000 payphones if talks with a major online music provider prove fruitful. According to a BBC report, the telco wants to allow owners of portable music players to hook up their devices to modified payphones, then pay for and download songs. The scheme is being …

Telecoms 25 Oct 2004, 15:23
RIM rises as PalmOne slides in Euro device market

But Nokia, Symbian continue to rule

Western Europeans continue to favour standalone PDAs, with enough of them being bought during Q3 to push shipments up four per cent, market watcher IDC said today. But their real interest lies in smart phones. Shipments totalled 1.85m units during the same period, up 38 per cent on Q3 2003's 1.34m total, IDC said. The vast …

Mobile 25 Oct 2004, 15:53
Blunkett, Blair and the wonderful world of EU opt ins

UK opts in to asylum? Isn't that an export?

While in the background the EU's interior ministers hatched plans to fingerprint all 450 million of us, the foregrounded story in the UK was our opt-out/opt-in/veto. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis claimed that actual Home Secretary (arguably the shadowier one) David Blunkett was selling the UK down the river by accepting …

Music and Media 25 Oct 2004, 18:12