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19th September 2005 Archive

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  • Adobe up to the BAR

    Putting BAR/Honda to the test

    It’s a hard life, being forced to stand on the VIP balcony at the Circuit de Catalunya outside of Barcelona at a BAR/Honda F1 racing team test day while Jenson Button drives down the start-finish straight with a banshee howl that drills a neat hole right through the head from ear to ear. But someone has to do it. The reason for …

    Software 19 Sep 2005, 07:38

  • Techscape: Skype beyond the hype

    Comment Whitman's future just got dimmer

    So Skype got itself sold. Is this a good thing for the Tech Sector? Not likely. Far from joining the throngs lionizing Meg Whitman, I don’t think she’s going to live up to expectations and if she doesn’t, watch out. Her idea to “monetize” Skype by using them as telephonic spam sounds positively insane, not to mention …

    VoIP 19 Sep 2005, 07:47

  • On Borland JBuilder 2006

    Preview It's a collaborative thing

    We've always liked Borland's JBuilder IDE for Java, especially as it is part of a pretty complete Application Lifecycle Management platform. Borland's Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) platform ranges from requirements and process management through to (with the help of Mercury) testing. However, now comes JBuilder 2006 …

    Developer 19 Sep 2005, 08:07

  • Microsoft upgrades software assurance

    Much loved licensing programme tweaked

    Late last week Microsoft announced changes to Software Assurance - its licensing and maintenance scheme for larger customers. From March 2006 customers signing up to Software Assurance will get more benefits than just automatic upgrades and spread payments. Desktop Deployment Services will offer help, consultants and planning …

    Software 19 Sep 2005, 08:35

  • LogicaCMG buys Unilog for £630m

    Rights issue

    LogicaCMG is paying €930.3m(£630.6m) for French reseller Unilog and will issue shares to pay for it. It will buy 32.3 per cent from "certain members of the management of Unilog and others for a total of €255.4m in cash and the issue of 19, 572, 703 new Consideration Shares.". The company proposes to acquire the remaining 67.7 …

    Financial News 19 Sep 2005, 09:51

  • World+dog sniffing round OneTel

    More attractive than a lamppost

    The world and his dog are sniffing around Onetel following Centrica's decision last week to flog its telecoms business. According to weekend press reports the Carphone Warehouse is among a string of companies interested in the business, which has around 1.7m punters. Among other potential bidders that might be prepared to …

    Broadband 19 Sep 2005, 09:52

  • Judge declares global warming too political for US courts

    A real hot potato

    A federal judge in New York has deemed the questions raised by a global warming lawsuit to be too political for the judiciary to deal with. The suit, brought by eight states and the city of New York, asked for the courts to force five utilities companies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. The five companies - American …

    Science 19 Sep 2005, 09:56

  • UK tops zombie PC chart (again)

    Eng-Land of the Dead

    Britain is once again 'top of the bots' with the world's highest proportion of known bot-infected computers. In the first half of 2005, The UK has almost a third (32 per cent) of all bots – virus-infected, zombie PCs under the control of hackers and used for malicious purposes such as identity theft and spam distribution –. …

    Security 19 Sep 2005, 09:59

  • Yahoo! goes! TV-tastic!

    We're a broadcast platform, don'cha know ...

    Terry Sempel, chief executive of Yahoo! told British TV execs in Cambridge last week that his company offered them their best chance of making money from their archives. Sempel told delegates at the Royal Television Society conference that online video search was a way "to monetize some of the stuff that's lounging around in …

    Broadband 19 Sep 2005, 10:12

  • Semico raises 2005 chip sales forecast

    Business booming

    Market watcher Semico has doubled its growth forecast for the chip industry this year. The company had said its expects 2005's sales to come in just two per cent above 2004's total, but now it's upped the growth figure to four per cent. That should see sales total $221.6bn. In 2006, sales will leap a further 18.2 per cent to $ …

    System Builder 19 Sep 2005, 10:59

  • Online smut still homeless as .xxx is delayed again

    But .cat is approved

    ICANN has delayed again the approval of the .xxx top level domain (TLD) until an unspecified "future date". The establishment of the domain was originally agreed by ICANN in June, but has been mired in political debate after conservative groups in the US raised concerns about having a TLD specifically for porn. President Bush …

    Media 19 Sep 2005, 11:03

  • Bell Micro does backup with Sonasoft

    Distie agreement with Sonasoft

    Bell Microproducts has agreed to distribute backup products from Sonasoft across Europe. Sonasoft makes Point-Click Recovery software - a recovery product aimed at SMEs(Small and Medium Enterprises). It provides disk to disk backup on Windows servers. The company's SonaSafe product automates backup using templates which the …

    The Channel 19 Sep 2005, 11:17

  • 4m people dial-up Voda's 3G service

    Mass market on its way

    More than four million people worldwide are tuned into Vodafone's 3G phone service, the giant cellco announced today. Ten months after launching its next generation service, Vodafone reported today that 3G is "gaining increasing traction in the market". As of the end of August it had some 4.35m 3G customer in some 15 markets, …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2005, 11:22

  • Mobile email meets the masses

    IDC reports...

    By 2009 13.5m people in Europe will know the pain and joy of mobile corporate email. Research from IDC suggests individuals will access corporate email through laptops, PDAs and mobile phones. The report found that email is still being underexploited, despite its status as the is the most widely used mobile data application …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2005, 11:24

  • Widescreen Gizmondo coming Q2 2006

    Tiger touts updated handheld console

    Tiger Telematics will release its second-generation, widescreen Gizmondo handheld console in Q2 2006. Tiger will sell the new model alongside the current version, which launched in the UK in March this year and which makes its debut in the US in October. The widescreen model comes in response to the 4.3in LCD built into Sony' …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2005, 11:26

  • Mashboxx in Grokster 'takeover talks'

    Wayne Rosso to regain control of his old company?

    One-time Grokster CEO Wayne Rosso could end up running the once again if claims in today's Wall Street Journal that his current operation, Mashboxx, is trying to buy the controversial P2P software company prove correct. The financial terms on which such a deal might be struck are not known, but the WSJ speculates that Grokster' …

    Financial News 19 Sep 2005, 12:09

  • 2bn mobile phones in use

    How many of them do you have?

    There is now one mobile phone subscription for every three people on the planet, according to researchers at Wireless Intelligence. The information service, a collaboration between analyst house Ovum and the GSM Association says that there are now more than two billion mobile subscriptions out there, including pre-paid accounts …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2005, 12:17

  • Firefox and Mac security sanctuaries 'under attack'

    Symantec attacks sacred cows

    Symantec has attacked the perceived security advantages of Firefox and Apple Macs by drawing unfavourable comparisons with Microsoft's software and describing Mac fans as living in a "false paradise". According to the latest edition of Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, 25 vulnerabilities were disclosed for Mozilla …

    Security 19 Sep 2005, 12:19

  • EasyMobile preps Germany launch

    Ringing the changes

    EasyMobile.com - the discount mobile phone outfit backed by easyJet entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou - is to launch its service in Germany. As in the UK, easyMobile is piggybacking on T-Mobile's network to provide the service. Speaking to The Reg today EasyMobile boss Frank Rasmussen declined to say exactly when the service …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2005, 12:46

  • Orange SPV C550 music phone

    Review iPod Nano need not panic

    In the early days of Windows Mobile smart phones Orange was the UK's leading light, launching the first UK device way back at the tail end of 2002. Since then Orange has been joined by other operators and by operator-agnostic vendors, but the company has kept its own line flowing with a steady range of new entrants. The latest …

    Reviews 19 Sep 2005, 13:56

  • Sage buys into France

    Shopping spree just won't stop

    Accountancy software provider Sage has bought yet another company - French reseller Cogestib. Sage is paying £7.7m in cold, hard cash for Cogestib, a French firm which sells business management systems to small and medium businesses in France, especially in car distribution. It has 3, 000 customers and revenues until 31 …

    The Channel 19 Sep 2005, 14:04

  • TSMC to raise 2006 capex

    Optimistic about the short term?

    TSMC, the world's largest chip foundry, has added its voice to the chorus of claims that the short-term prognosis for the world semiconductor business is positive. The foundry's vote of confidence was signalled by the announcement of a plan to raise capital spending next year. TSMC spent around $2.32bn in 2004 on new plant, …

    System Builder 19 Sep 2005, 14:13

  • Redstone restructures for cash generation and growth

    Post-acquisition integration

    Redstone is dividing itself up into four autonomous operating units following its acquisition of Xpert Group in April. It says the re-organisation delivers "immediate profitability and cash generation". With the new structure, the data networking and IT products reseller, says it has "developed a strong platform for its future …

    The Channel 19 Sep 2005, 14:41

  • IBM ships next-gen mainframe

    Z9 from outer space?

    IBM started shipping the new z9 mainframe on Friday, squarely aiming the machines at larger enterprises. The z9, the cunningly-named ninth generation of the z-series of mainframe, is built specifically with security in mind. It boasts intrusion detection systems, encryption key management and a cryptography accelerator that can …

    Servers 19 Sep 2005, 14:43

  • Worm spoofs Google on infected PCs

    Malware practices Jedi Mind tricks

    Virus writers have developed a worm that spoofs the behaviour of internet search engine Google, varying the results displayed to suit the requirements of hackers. P2Load-A modifies the HOSTS file on infected PCs by replacing the original with a file downloaded from a remote website under the control of hackers. When users run a …

    Security 19 Sep 2005, 14:55

  • Portable application Flash drives hit the streets

    U3 take-away Home folder system available now

    USB Flash drives based on technology developer U3's portable application specification started shipping today. Available drives come from Kingston, Memorex and Verbatim, the three storage companies U3 announced as supporters of the platform last March. Disgo, Intuix and Disk2Go also have products supporting the U3 system. U3 …

    Peripherals 19 Sep 2005, 16:14

  • Siemens Business Systems confirms job losses

    2,400 face the chop

    Siemens has confirmed that 2,400 jobs are to be axed at its IT business in Germany over the next two years as the technology and engineering giant looks to cut costs. Speculation has grown over recent weeks about the scale of the job losses as Siemens looks to cut overheads in a bid return to "sustainable profitable growth". …

    Financial News 19 Sep 2005, 16:15

  • Jamster! lets parents take control

    Ring no tone

    ICSTIS, the UK's premium rate phone watchdog, has given a cautious welcome to Jamster!'s decision to let parents prevent their kids from downloading content from its website. The Jamster! Guardian service goes live in the UK this week and rolls out to other countries later this year. It enables parents enter a mobile phone …

    Mobile 19 Sep 2005, 16:25

  • NASA plans week-long lunar trip

    Wish you were here?

    NASA is preparing to lay out its plans for returning to the moon and plans to send a four-person mission back to our largest satellite in 2018. The astronauts will stay on the lunar surface for a week. NASA briefed Congress on its plans last Friday, according to the BBC. The agency told elected officials that developing the …

    Science 19 Sep 2005, 16:35

  • Logicalis buys TBC

    Beefs up IBM business

    Logicalis has bolstered its UK business with the acquisition of TBC, an IBM premier partner based in Croydon. Terms were undisclosed. With TBC's annual revenues of c.£30m under its belt, Logicalis will have UK revenues of around £125m per annum. Logicalis, part of South African-owned Datatec Limited, has bought two other UK mid …

    The Channel 19 Sep 2005, 16:47

  • Apple declares war on Nigels

    Paedophiles can relax, though

    First Apple came for the bloggers. Now they've come for ... the Nigels. Although Apple allows punters to personalize iPods bought at its online store, it operates a bizarre discrimination policy, a Register reader has discovered. If you want to engrave it with your name, you had better not be called Nigel. Or Nige. The text is …

    Bootnotes 19 Sep 2005, 16:59