25th July 2005 Archive

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C&W sniffing around Energis - confirmed

Finally...

Cable & Wireless (C&W) has confirmed it is sniffing around Energis. Chairman Richard Lapthorne told investors on Friday that the UK telco is considering making a bid for the alternative telco but said it was too early to say whether a deal would be inked. Lapthorne's confirmation that it is interested in acquiring Energis ends …

Financial News 25 Jul 2005, 09:18
Intel pushes 'East Fork' home PC 'back to Q1 2006'

Whither Anchor Creek?

Intel's bid to put its processors at the heart of future living room PCs will not take place until early next year, motherboard-maker moles have claimed. The unnamed sources, cited by Taiwan's DigiTimes, allege Intel's home PC platform, 'East Fork', was originally planned to ship in H2 2005 but will now debut in Q1 2006. The …

PCs 25 Jul 2005, 09:22
MS faces court over Vista

Trademark owner gets retaliation in first

Microsoft's decision to call the next version of its OS Vista might have a raised a few smiles last week but one Redmond resident is less than impressed. The boss of Vista, a software and services company for small businesses is considering taking legal action against the software giant. John Wall is the founder of Wall Data …

Operating Systems 25 Jul 2005, 09:25
DNA 'tagging' powder combats unwanted intrusions

Get i-powdered, go to jail

A UK firm has developed a DNA "tagging" product which it reckons will see Britain's jails packed to bursting with those burglars foolish enough to mess with Redweb Security's biosyntethic "i-powder". The concept is pretty simple. The "i-powder", which carries a "uniquely-traceable DNA code" registered to the owner, is projected …

Bootnotes 25 Jul 2005, 09:29
Intel dual-core Celerons to sport 5xx model numbers?

And what's all this about a Pentium D 805?

Intel may be preparing a low-end version of its dual-core Pentium D processor. Or - more likely - the upcoming dual-core Celeron line will take the 5xx model number series. The suggestion comes from a post on Asian hardware site HKEPC, which claims the part has the usual 1MB of L2 cache per core, but is clocked to just 2.66GHz …

PCs 25 Jul 2005, 09:36
UK war driver fined £500

Tough break

A man was last week fined £500 after a British jury found him guilty of using a neighborhood wireless broadband connection without permission. Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, was also sentenced to a 12 months conditional discharge after he was convicted of dishonestly obtaining an communications service and related offences at London …

Enterprise Security 25 Jul 2005, 10:10
Biostar pitches Nvidia C51-based barebones

'Integrated GeForce 6 graphics'

Biostar has begun touting an upcoming iDEQ small form-factor PC barebones system based on Nvidia's as-yet-unannounced C51 integrated chipset. The iDEQ 330N is aimed at Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 and 64-FX processors. The chipset is Nvidia's two-part C51, Biostar makes clear on the system's specification, which integrates a …

PCs 25 Jul 2005, 10:14
MSN Virtual Earth

Google getter

Microsoft has launched a beta version of Virtual Earth. Virtual Earth, a bit like the "World Series" is currently limited to North America. The software looks broadly similiar to Google's version of our planet. Users can switch between maps or photos. One big difference is MSN's version includes software which can tell you …

Wireless 25 Jul 2005, 10:26
Bulldog mulls LLU complaint against BT

Blame game

Bulldog - which has received a barrage of complaints about its unbundled broadband and telephone service - is considering lodging a formal complaint against BT over its alleged failure to migrate punters over to the Cable & Wireless (C&W) owned ISP. At a shareholders meeting on Friday, C&W chairman Richard Lapthorne touched on …

Financial News 25 Jul 2005, 10:29
Intel Pentium M 780 pops up in Japan

Price cuts to older models imminent?

Intel hasn't announced its Pentium M 780 mobile processor, but the part has already started to appear on Japanese computer retailers' price lists. The 2.26GHz chip contains 2MB of L2 cache and operates across a 533MHz frontside bus, according to pictures of the boxed processor's label posted by Japanese language site PC Watch. …

PCs 25 Jul 2005, 10:33
Deaf charity wants high fashion hearing aids

Quietly chic

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London is hosting an exhibition of high-fashion hearing aids, called Hearwear, in a bid to rehabilitate the devices and make them seem more attractive to those who might need them. The exhibition, supported by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), will showcase a range of designs, …

Science 25 Jul 2005, 10:47
Vodafone adds 4m customers

Good quarter

Vodafone gained 4.1m customers in the three months ended 30 June 2005 and upped proportionate mobile revenues by 8.6 per cent compared to the same period a year ago. The mobile giant claims 165m customers worldwide which is organic growth of 12.3 per cent. Vodafone has 1.1m registered 3G devices. The figures are in line with …

Financial News 25 Jul 2005, 10:53
Support ID Card 'refuseniks' here

No2ID at it again

No2ID has started a new pledge at Pledgebank.com asking for 50,000 people to offer their support, and cash, to the 10,000 who have promised to refuse to register for an ID card. The pledge reads: "I will actively support those people who, on behalf of all of us, refuse to register for an ID card and I pledge to pay at least £20 …

Public Sector 25 Jul 2005, 11:30
Sales of DVD duplication software blocked

Illegal in the Netherlands

Dutch Anti piracy organisation BREIN has won its battle to prevent distributor Teledirekt distributing the controversial DVD X Copy family of utilities in the Netherlands. Teledirekt refused to follow orders from BREIN to stop selling the software, despite the fact that DVD X Copy developer 321 Studios went bankrupt last year …

Music and Media 25 Jul 2005, 12:34
NTL extends VoD service

Broxbourne now on the digital map

An extra 100,000 punters in the UK will be able to switch on to video-on-demand (VoD) within the next week as NTL upgrades its digital TV service. Over the next seven days, NTL digital TV punters in Luton, Broxbourne, East and Central Herts, North and East Bedfordshire, Huddersfield and Dewsbury will automatically be switched …

Telecoms 25 Jul 2005, 12:39
TV on the move

DMB standards approved

The European Telecommunications Standard Institute ETSI has approved the DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) standards for the delivery of multimedia content and services "on the move". France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the UK are all preparing to conduct DMB trials to enable the integration of audio, …

Mobile 25 Jul 2005, 12:56
AMD's 3GHz Athlon 64-FX 'due Q1 2006'

Roadmap New Semprons, Opterons, Athlons coming this quarter

AMD will upgrade its Athlon 64 X2 and 64-FX processor lines early next year - potentially the chips' final Socket 939 incarnations before the company debuts its M2 interconnect in Q2 2006. The FX-59, clocked to 3GHz, will ship in Q1 2006. So will a 2.6GHz dual-core Athlon X2, possibly with a 5000+ rating, according to AMD …

PCs 25 Jul 2005, 13:28
SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus USB/SD card

Review Memory card in innovation shock

SD cards aren't exciting products. They do what they're supposed to: slip into your digital camera, PDA or whatever as removable storage. Most of the time there's little to differentiate one from another, bar read and write speed. But this particular SD card is very different from any other SD card you're likely to find and it's …

Reviews 25 Jul 2005, 13:35
FTC cracks down on email smut barons

Bang to rights

The US Federal Trade Commission last week launched a crack down on xxx-rated spam with legal action against seven firms that have allegedly flouted laws requiring warning labels on smutty emails. Four of the seven companies agreed to pay a total of $1.159m in penalties and to abide by federal rules requiring warning labels on …

Music and Media 25 Jul 2005, 13:43
Microsoft's Earth deletes Apple HQ

Vacant lot

Not one but two Register readers emailed us to tell us that MSN's Virtual Earth is promoting a world free of the menace of Apple Computers. If you've got time on your hands - stand up Jens and Stefan - have a look at Apple's Cupertino headquarters from Google and MSN's rival map sites. Both sites offer aerial photos alongside …

Bootnotes 25 Jul 2005, 13:44
3Com puts a bounty on vulns

Report security bugs, get paid

TippingPoint, a division of networking giant 3Com, plans to pay researchers for information about unannounced vulnerabilities in major systems and software and will add bonuses for prolific flaw finders, the company announced on Monday. Under the program, dubbed the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), researchers will submit details of …

Security 25 Jul 2005, 14:25
EMC spawns data storage Godzilla

Petabyte giant squares up to rivals

Bigger, faster, stronger. That's what EMC wants customers to think when they consider the latest gear in the Symmetrix DMX line of storage systems. EMC today unveiled the DMX-3 box and delivered a real stunner. The system, shipping in Sept., holds 960 disk drives and will support up to 1,920 drives by the first half of 2006. …

Storage 25 Jul 2005, 14:38
Orange preps September smart phone splash

M3000 = M500 + keyboard

Orange is already preparing an alternative version of the recently launched SPV C550 smart phone, and is gearing up to on a 3G-less version of its planned palmtop-style handset, the SPV M5000. So claims French site Smartphone France, which has posted a set of grainy photocopies of the handsets for good measure. The SPV C600 is …

Mobile 25 Jul 2005, 14:42
Icy satellite preps for autumn launch

How thick is your ice sheet?

European Space Agency (ESA) engineers are running the final checks on the agency's CryoSat satellite, before it is shipped to Russia for an autumn launch. The satellite will spend three years in orbit, monitoring the thickness of the ice sheets at the North Pole pole. Data from submarines suggests that global ice cover is …

Science 25 Jul 2005, 14:49
'Rip-off' calls to hospitals under the microscope

Ofcom probes 'excessive' charges

Ofcom is to probe whether people are ripped off for telephoning patients in hospital. The comms regulator launched its own investigation today after receiving complaints from punters about having to pay up to 50p a minute to call patients. Two companies - Patientline Ltd and Premier Managed Payphones Ltd - operate bedside …

Telecoms 25 Jul 2005, 14:54
Spyware 'calling home' volumes soar

Crosstalk

Outbound spyware transmissions from infested machines accounted for up to eight per cent of total outbound web traffic in pilot tests of a new managed spyware screening service. UK web security firm ScanSafe said the volume of traffic observed during a 10-week pilot test of its Spyware Screening service showed that spyware …

Malware 25 Jul 2005, 14:59
Boffins mull life on Titan

Organic snacks for Titanic microbes

A group of researchers has proposed a mechanism that could explain the presence of so much methane on Titan - life. The moon's atmosphere is around five per cent methane, and NASA researcher Chris McKay speculates that some of it could be being generated by hydrogen-breathing microbes. If life does exist on the Saturnian moon, …

Science 25 Jul 2005, 15:53
'RFID the lot of them!' UK ID card to use ICAO reader standard

Hello, the National Tagging Register...

The Government last week confirmed that the UK's planned ID card is intended to operate as a 'passport lite' that could be used for travel within the European Union, and signalled that Home Office thinking may be moving towards the use of a PIN as a common mechanism for verification. The card's operation as a passport, said …

Music and Media 25 Jul 2005, 16:59
HP makes FATA fatter for EVA

Forget EMC for a minute

HP today scrambled to counter EMC's launch of a new Symmetrix monster by announcing an upgrade to the FATA (Fibre Attached Technology Adapted) drives used in its EVA storage line. HP sexed-up the news with some Dilbert-speak. The FATA technology will "better enable information delivery according to its business relevance," HP …

Storage 25 Jul 2005, 18:19
Yahoo! buys! bloated! widgets!

Konfabulous - 200MB of dancing Hula girl

Just when you thought Yahoo! was showing signs that it knew it was doing, comes some news to suggest otherwise. The competition between Google and Yahoo! has seen each company scrambling to make quality software available for download for little or no cost. And each company has, more often than not, brought home best-of-breed …

Financial News 25 Jul 2005, 19:53
AMD's Opteron decimates Xeon market

Ten per cent target reached. Next stop: Er... 12 per cent

AMD has done the improbable, or maybe just the not so expected. One market researcher has the chip maker's Opteron processor holding ten per cent of the x86 server market. In just two years, AMD has gone from a non-entity in the server market to pose a serious challenge to Intel's business thanks to Opteron. Mercury Research's …

Servers 25 Jul 2005, 22:29
China's chip gaining GHz quickly - report

Godson-2 now visible in Intel's rear view mirror

Microprocessor Report has released the longest analysis yet of China's home grown microprocessor, Godson-2. Published information on the project has been sparse, but is eagerly awaited. The economic powerhouse has long been dependent on expensive foreign microprocessors, which make up one of the few remaining areas the US' …

Servers 25 Jul 2005, 23:45