21st June 2006 Archive

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Seagate amazed by its own regulatory compliance

Mono-p-olice clear desks before summer hols

Seagate was pleasantly surprised at how easily its $1.9bn swallowing of Maxtor last year passed regulatory muster. The deal got the final thumbs up from shareholders in May after US and EU scrutineers greenlighted the deal in double-quick time. Seagate now controls more than 60 per cent of the enterprise HDD market. Bosses …

Storage 21 Jun 2006, 05:02
Sony unveils 'no compromise' sub-notebook

11.1in, 16:9 display perfect for DVDs, apparently

Sony today introduced its latest attempt to make European computer buyers fall in love with sub-notebooks, pitching its 11.1in widescreen Vaio TX3 series of machines as no-compromise ultra-portable PCs. The sub-notebook family's members are powered by a variety of ultra-low voltage single-core Core Solo processors from Intel …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 06:39
Rain, missiles and high def TVs

SEK2006 And don't forget the robots...

The opening of the 20th SEK conference in Seoul, South Korea, was slightly upstaged by the early arrival of the monsoon season - well, that and the imminent missile tests in North Korea. But at least the rain should keep the rocket on its launch pad. Damp delegates gathered for the opening ceremony of Korea's flagship …

Mobile 21 Jun 2006, 08:43
Phishing with Rachna Dhamija

Interview The human factor

Federico Biancuzzi interviews Rachna Dhamija, co-author of the paper "Why Phishing Works" and creator of Dynamic Security Skins. They discuss the human factor, how easy it is to recreate a credible browser window made with images, some new anti-phishing features included in the upcoming version of some popular browsers, and the …

Security 21 Jun 2006, 08:47
DSGi to flog The Link to O2

That'll be £30m, ta

DSG International - Dixons to you and me - has confirmed that it is to flog its majority stake in The Link to joint venture partner O2 for around £30m. Publishing its prelims for the year to April DSGi revealed that sales in its ailing Link Communications Group were down 21 per cent at £419m. The failure to turn the business …

Channel Register 21 Jun 2006, 08:52
OGCbs strikes IT agreements

New framework to reduce public sector costs

OGCbuying.solutions has launched a new framework for IT goods and services. The agency has predicted that the framework would save over 10 per cent for buyers. The new agreement, known as the IT Goods and Associated Services Framework Agreement, is to be managed by OGCbuying.solutions, the trading arm of the Office of …

Public Sector 21 Jun 2006, 08:58
Sun announces its latest NAS solution

Comment 5320 builds on recent company momentum

Sun Microsystems has announced the Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance, the first NAS solution based on the AMD Opteron processor model 252. The Sun StorageTek 5320 NAS Appliance builds on the Sun StorEdge 5000 NAS Appliance family, and also delivers investment protection via a data-in-place upgrade. Key features include iSCSI …

Storage 21 Jun 2006, 09:11
Matrox ships four-panel display card

Thin-client friendly

Matrox has begun shipping its four-screen graphics adaptor. The part is pitched at back-to-basics PCs that act as display and input terminals for apps running on a server. It expects the device to appeal to trading rooms and other financial institutions that favour multi-screen rigs. The EpicA series comprises the TC4, TC2 …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 09:14
Creative unveils Zen V Plus

Compact black iPod Nano rival

Creative will launch its latest iPod Nano rival in August, the music player maker announced today. It touted the new Flash-based gadget's "funky" black-heavy colour schemes and its 1.5in, 128 x 128 colour OLED screen, ready to display album art, photos and videos. The Zen V Plus will ship in three capacities: 1GB, 2GB and …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 09:39
Ballmer's right hand man waves goodbye to Microsoft

Surprise departure

The executive who coordinated Microsoft's anti-Linux campaign has quit the company less than three months after moving to a position revamping MSN's marketing. Martin Taylor, a 13-year Microsoft veteran and advisor to chief executive Steve Ballmer, has left in an apparent rush and without official explanation. Such was the …

IT Director 21 Jun 2006, 09:39
Linux kernel goes Niagara

Deluge of support

The open source community has rallied to Sun Microsystems' Niagara flag by releasing an updated Linux kernel supporting Niagara. The Linux Kernel 2.6.17, posted this weekend, supports Sun's multi-core UltraSPARC T1 processor, whose spec has been open sourced by Sun. The move comes after Sun has taken the initiative to get …

Servers 21 Jun 2006, 09:41
Mio extends GPS sat nav line-up

Bigger, more capacious

Mio today followed up last week's launch of its C210 budget-priced in-car sat nav system with a pair of more sophisticated models, the C510E and C710, both of which will ship with maps for 24 European countries. The maps - which are the latest versions produced by TeleAtlas, Mio said - are pre-installed on the C710, but ship …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 10:11
Unauthorised apps bigger threat than malware

Chart ranks enemies within

Mozilla's Firefox 1.0.7 has taken top spot in a list of vulnerable applications likely to be lurking in corporate IT systems released by Bit9. The endpoint security vendor contends that malware is less of a threat to companies than unpatched off-the-shelf applications deployed throughout their organisations. Firefox 1.0.7 is …

Malware 21 Jun 2006, 10:18
Asus readies remote-control phone

Manipulate presentations by Bluetooth

Asus this week unveiled its latest mobile phones, including a slimline slider that doubles up as a remote control unit. Operating by Bluetooth, the J208 is pitched at business folk, who can use the handset to control presentations and slideshows. The J208 is 1.7mm thick and sports a 176 x 220, 1.9in, 262,144-colour screen and …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 10:49
Dutch MP3 ruling hit by conflict of interest claims

Judges linked to rights holders

The impartiality of two of the judges who ruled that Dutch website Mp3search.nl broke the law by posting links to copyrighted files has been called into question. Last Friday, an appeals court in the Netherlands ruled that facilitating MP3 downloads through a search engine, even when those files are not hosted by the search …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2006, 10:58
T-Mobile HSDPA links to go live in August

Carrier pledges 20Mbps downloads by decade's end

T-Mobile UK's 'super 3G' high-speed download service will go live on 1 August, the carrier said today. And it pledged to triple the network's performance next year ahead of hitting a whopping 20Mbps by 2011. Initially, HSPDA technology will provide download speeds of up to 1.8Mbps, though T-Mobile admitted real-world …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 11:31
Notes from Seoul

SEK2006 Football, jelly fish and football

Arriving in a country you've never visited is almost certain to provide some surprises. But Korea surprised me before I'd left Heathrow. I arrived at the departure lounge half an hour before we were due to leave. I'd normally devote this time to filling my blood with enough nicotine to last the flight, but thought I should make …

Music and Media 21 Jun 2006, 12:02
HP speeds up reorg, scraps operations unit

Independence movement

Mark Hurd sent another shockwave through HP yesterday, when he announced the firm is scrapping its Global Operations organization. The move means the firm will essentially consist of three main business groups; Imaging and Printing; Personal Systems; and Technology Solutions. The individual groups will take responsibility for …

Financial News 21 Jun 2006, 12:02
Opera 9 is go

Die Browsermaus

Opera has unleashed the final version of its new browser today. Opera 9 features built-in support for BitTorrent searches and widgets for desktop dooberries, such as currency converters and World Cup tickers. Opera says it has boosted its browser's security capabilities, with better pop-up blocking and a security bar to block …

Applications 21 Jun 2006, 12:06
UK gov pleads with retailers for climate change help

Your plasma telly = potential global catastrophe

The government is calling on consumer electronics retailers to focus on energy efficiency as it struggles to meet its own climate change targets. A review released at the end of March found it would miss its ambition of a 20 per cent reduction in CO2 by 2010. Eleven of the biggest electronics sellers are attending a summit at …

Science 21 Jun 2006, 12:20
Lycos.com tunes in to net TV

Web-tastic

Lycos, Inc. has become the latest web outfit to jump on the internet TV bandwagon after announcing it has teamed up with US-based Permission TV to offer video content to the 25 million or so visitors to Lycos.com and its network of other sites. The portal outfit is currently holding talks to make TV shows and movies available …

Telecoms 21 Jun 2006, 12:40
World Cup Camera Phone Contest!

Competition He shoots...he scores...

The 2006 FIFA World Cup competition is into its second round, and as the pace begins to hot up, we at Reg Hardware reckon it's time to kick off a shooting contest of our own... STOP PRESS First winner announced. Visit the gallery page to see more... Almost every phone is kitted out with a camera these days, but how well do …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 12:54
MS seeks 'Direct Physics' coder

Physics-on-GPU standard on the way?

Microsoft is indeed preparing to produce an API to accelerate games physics calculations, if a help wanted ad posted on the company's website is anything to go by. The software giant is currently seeking a software design engineer to join its "Direct Physics" development team. The job posting was spotted by ExtremeTech. While …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 13:46
A third of EU citizens lack basic computer skills

They're the lucky ones

More than a third of Europe's population have no basic computer skills, according to data published by the Statistical Office of European Communities. Eurostat found that 37 per cent of people aged between 16 and 74 had no basic computer skills and were unable to complete tasks such as using a mouse to copy a file or folder. …

IT Director 21 Jun 2006, 13:59
Samsung moots dual Blu-ray HD DVD player

Again

Samsung may produce a twin-format Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD player later this year after all. The company this week revealed it is "considering" such a "universal" machine, according to a company spokesman. "We don't have a plan to make an HD DVD-only player but are considering a universal player," the spokesman said, …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 14:13
Insecurity rife in technology, media and telecoms

Consultants expose chattering farces

They might make a living out of IT, but technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies are pretty inept when it comes to securing their systems. That at least is what the industry admitted to researchers from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, which found that while TMT companies were well aware of threats to information …

Malware 21 Jun 2006, 14:32
Coke to close UK music download site

Lost its fizz

Coca Cola is to close its UK online music download site mycokemusic.com at the end of July because of competition from the likes of Apple's iTunes service. A note on mycokemusic.com says the site will close on 31 July. Punters won't be able to buy any more credits for the service and those who still have some left are being …

Financial News 21 Jun 2006, 14:57
Cambridge-MIT comms tie-up gets corporate

Research will have to justify itself

The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), a joint venture between Cambridge University and MIT, has spun-out one of its cross-pond research groups devoted to working out what the future of the communications industry might look like, as a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee. This means the Communications Research Network (CRN …

Networks 21 Jun 2006, 15:12
Apple moves on movie downloads

iMovies by the end of the year?

Apple is getting serious about chatting up the Hollywood studios to make movies available for download, according to the news pages of Luvvie publication, Variety. The magazine says movie lovers could be downloading films from the iTunes service (who wants to bet there will be iMovies by then?) as early as the end of this year …

Financial News 21 Jun 2006, 16:05
Nokia N80 3G phone

Review Wi-Fi, 3G and three megapixels

The N80 is Nokia's latest attempt to offer a "does everything" phone. It's also one of the company's first handsets to incorporate Wi-Fi and to take the camera resolution to three megapixels. It's an all-singing, all-dancing phone, and it certainly cuts a dash. But does it hit the right notes? This is Nokia’s first three- …

Reg Hardware 21 Jun 2006, 16:09
US Army pleads for help making robots safe

RoboBiz Tons of gear – few answers

The US military plans to have a vast robot army in the near future but has yet to come up with a concrete method for ensuring that mindless devices can operate safely alongside brained troops. So, the military has been forced to beg for help. General Charles Cartwright urged attendees here at the Robo Business conference to …

Rise of the Machines 21 Jun 2006, 16:14
Carnegie Mellon's robotics whiz oddly trapped in the past

RoboBiz Seeing Red

For the last twenty years, the same robotics story has been written time and again. It goes something like, "The future is here. Robotics has moved from promise to reality and is set to explode as a major money-making field." Local robotics legend William "Red" Whittaker trotted out that tired line today here at the Robo …

Rise of the Machines 21 Jun 2006, 18:35