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24th July 2006 Archive

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  • Sun: We're happy with Eclipse, honest...

    Competition is a good thing

    The executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, Mike Milinkovich, recently told us that "We don't really have a relationship with Sun...I've made numerous entreaties to try to engage Sun with Eclipse, from Jonathan Schwartz down, and I've never had anything other than 'thanks for calling'." Sun's Dan Roberts, director of …

    Developer 24 Jul 2006, 07:26

  • Microsoft confirms Zune software, hardware family

    iTunes meets MySpace?

    Microsoft has confirmed it is developing a "family of hardware and sofftware products" under the Zune brand in a bid to win a big chunk of the portable media playback market away from Apple's iPod and its competitors. It's been alleged in the recent past that Microsoft's goal it to grab 20 per cent of the PMP business, though …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 08:22

  • AMD Socket F Opterons due mid-August

    Two-week delay?

    AMD's Socket F interconnect and the DDR 2-enabled Opteron processors that will require it will not launch until mid-August, the chip maker has apparently revealed. Until now, moles were pointing to 1 August as the launch date, following a slight delay from an alleged originally scheduled roll-out on 11 July. Socket F …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 08:43

  • Vodafone shareholders are revolting

    Sarin faces night of long knives

    Four major institutional investors in Vodafone look set to oppose the re-election of chief executive Arun Sarin. Hermes, Standard Life, the Prudential and M&G are all expected to either vote against Sarin or abstain at tomorrow's meeting. It is very unusual for big name investors to oppose board decisions in this way. Although …

    Mobile 24 Jul 2006, 08:50

  • AMD slashes prices by up to 61%

    CPUs axed too

    AMD has cut the prices of a number of mobile and desktop processors. It also dropped a number of CPUs from its price list too. The Turion ML series of single-core CPUs saw prices fall today between 5.8 per cent and 25.7 per cent. The ML-30 and ML-28 were dropped from the price list, as were the MT-28 and MT-30. Other MT- …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 09:11

  • ATI readies Radeon X1950

    Updated GDDR 4 on board, report claims

    ATI - well, maybe AMD, we suppose - is about to launch its latest X1900-class GPUs, including a chip capable of using GDDR 4 graphics memory. The Radeon X1950 - as the new part is apparently dubbed - will ship in CrossFire and XTX versions, various websites claim. Both boards will support up to 512MB of GDDR 4 and contain 48 …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 09:33

  • PI arrested at hacker convention

    Prisoner theme gets real

    A private detective has been arrested by the FBI at a hacker convention just minutes before he was due to lead a discussion on privacy. Steven Rambam, chief exec of online investigation service Pallorium, was arrested by the feds at the HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) convention in New York as he was preparing to give a …

    Security 24 Jul 2006, 09:34

  • AMD to buy ATI

    Cash'n'shares purchase totals $5.4bn

    AMD and ATI are to tie the knot, the two companies confirmed this morning, ending weeks of frenzied speculation in the process. The merged business will form a "formidable" competitor to Intel, Nvidia and other chip makers, the pair suggested. Well, maybe. And then only if both firms' shareholders approve the board- …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 09:53

  • French regulators cap SMS charges

    Updated Vla! Chpr txtin...not in the UK though

    French communications regulator ARCEP has had its move to cap the cost of text messaging backed by the European Commission. Under the plans Orange France, SFR, and Bouygues Telecom will see the wholesale amount they can charge each other for routing texts through their networks capped. Orange and SFR will be capped at three …

    Mobile 24 Jul 2006, 10:07

  • Abit recalls AN9 32X mobos

    Overheating risk, company admits

    Abit has asked owners of its AN9 32X motherboards - all of which are based on Nvdia's nForce 590 SLI - to send back their mobos for a free repair. A fault with the boards' heatsink assembly could cause the products to overheat, the company said. The boards affected by the recall are regular AN9 32X and the Fatal1ty-branded …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 10:16

  • Stargazers ID imminent supernova

    For a given value of imminent, anyway

    Astronomers have spotted a star that is, in astronomical terms, just about to explode in a spectacular supernova. RS Ophiuchi, a white dwarf located near the constellation of Libra, caught astronomers' attention last February when it flared up to 1,000 times its normal brightness. Astronomers identified it as a very rare beast …

    Science 24 Jul 2006, 10:33

  • ATI preps internal CrossFire connector

    80nm X1650 XT first to get it?

    ATI's Radeon X1950 line-up is to be accompanied later this year by the X1650 mainstream graphics chip series, if the latest leaks coming out of Asia are to be believed. The GPU family is said to include the X1650 XT and X1650 Pro - the former uses a new, internal cable for CrossFire connections. The Radeon X1650 line-up …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 10:45

  • Warning over Sky TV scam

    Two-part ruse

    Credit card fraudsters are targeting Sky TV subscribers with a new two-part scam. In the first part of the ruse, a pre-recorded telephone call asks members of the public if they subscribe to Sky TV. A week or so later, the prospective mark receives a telephone call from a fraudster, posing as a Sky employee, claiming the …

    Security 24 Jul 2006, 11:15

  • OMG!!! MySpace goes titsup

    Teen angst

    The United States' most popular website has been taken offline by a power outage. A message from MySpace founder and president Tom Anderson said he expected the site to be back by early Sunday evening, Pacific Time. Eight hours later, the site was still out of action. Teenagers and lurking paedophiles were offered the chance …

    Financial News 24 Jul 2006, 11:23

  • Light goes faster in reverse

    Caution: physicists at play

    A group of US physicists funded by the US Department of Energy have made a material capable of making light travel backwards, at speeds "that appear faster than the speed of light", at the smallest wavelength ever. The work, led by Costas Soukoulis at Iowa State University, could pave the way for a "perfect lens", and could …

    Science 24 Jul 2006, 11:38

  • Nokia ships latest n-series smart phones

    N93 here at last

    Nokia has at last begun shipping its N73 and N93 media phones to its carrier customers, the handset giant said today. The N73 is Nokia's bid for camera-phone supremacy: it sports a 3.2 megapixel unit with auto-focus, flash, mechanical shutter, 20x digital zoom and Carl Zeiss optics all feeding through to handset's 2.4in, 262, …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 11:50

  • Morse withdraws from Germany

    Rear guard action to protect services

    Morse has continued its retreat from the European mainland with the sale of its loss-making German and Austrian reselling business for €9.5m. The firm managed its withdrawal from Germany better than it did France last year. It's loss-making French arm was sold for €1, with more money promised at the end of 2007, should it …

    Channel Register 24 Jul 2006, 11:59

  • Microsoft's iPod killer - first photos

    Zune goes retro?

    No sooner had Microsoft confirmed the existence of its "iPod-killer", Zune, than photos have begun to appear. Or, more accurately, the first savage parodies. Charles Eicher offers this as a clue to how the team may be thinking, with the cute photo on the right. Behold, the iBob. And clearly drawing on the same wellspring of …

    Mobile 24 Jul 2006, 13:09

  • Germans unhappy with TV tax for mobiles and PCs

    Telly everywhere

    Germany is to introduce a TV tax for both PC and (UMTS) mobile phones that can receive television. The tax could be as high as €17 per month. Consumers that are already paying for radio and TV at home need not pay extra, but companies do. They may even have to pay for every location PCs or mobile phones are used at. According …

    Music and Media 24 Jul 2006, 13:13

  • AMD, ATI and the GPU

    Comment Breaking the monopoly

    "We may lose business on Intel boards, but we will break the Intel monopoly." With these words, AMD's CFO Bob Rivet announced the takeover of graphics chip maker, ATI, offering a future of joined-up shared processing, split between CPU and GPU. The deal, announced today, goes back some time. Last year, at Computex in Taipei, …

    Financial News 24 Jul 2006, 13:27

  • Only one in seven switch off their phones during sex

    Leave on vibrate?

    A survey into Brit's MobileLifestyles™ has revealed a paltry 14 per cent have the courtesy to switch off during sex with their partner, lest they get a txt msg from their m8 asking if they fncy a pnt. More than one fifth of the 18 to 24 year old category, or the Generation Mobile tribe to give them their approved marketing wonk …

    Mobile 24 Jul 2006, 14:02

  • 74,000 .eu domains suspended

    And phantom registrars sued

    Over 74,000 .eu domains have been suspended and 400 registering companies sued by the company in charge of the European Union's top-level domain. Non-profit organisation EURid has taken legal action after a review of the system for .eu domains (which went live in April) revealed a small number of companies had registered …

    Music and Media 24 Jul 2006, 14:10

  • Dell pledges free CPU upgrade to waiting XPS 700 buyers

    Conroe instead of Pentium D

    Dell is to offer a free Core 2 Duo processor upgrade to anyone who's been waiting since 18 July or before for one of the company's new XPS 700 gaming PC. The pledge follows increasing frustration on the part of buyers who've been waiting what seems like an age for their system to ship. Dell launched the XPS 700 late in May …

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 14:30

  • ESA offers grants for Space Butlins

    Orbital tourism is go in Europe

    Where American entrepreneurs lead, European bureaucrats are sure to follow, eventually. And so it has come to pass that, some years after the Ansari X Prize has been claimed, the European Space Agency is looking at ways to encourage the private sector to develop manned spacecraft. We're being a little unfair: ESA wants to see …

    Science 24 Jul 2006, 14:34

  • Unsolicited credit card push irks security researchers

    On tin snips and tin-foil hats

    A top UK security expert has criticised the practice of issuing unsolicited credit cards. Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University reports how his wife recently received a pre-approved, unsolicited Gold Mastercard from UK store Debenhams with a credit limit of more than £1,000 through the post. The security implications …

    Security 24 Jul 2006, 14:42

  • Passport fees balloon by almost 30%

    A price 'that must be paid', Home Office says

    The Home Office has announced new, higher fees for the UK's shiny new biometric ePassport. This is the second time the price of a standard passport has gone up in the last year. Last November prices rose from £42 to £51. Now, Joe Public will have to fork out an additional £15 for the privilege of being able to travel abroad - …

    Music and Media 24 Jul 2006, 15:08

  • Nintendo ships 21m DS handhelds

    Key of the door

    Nintendo has sold 21m DS handheld games consoles around the world since the device was launched on 21 November 2004. The company said it attributed the gadget's success to the availability of titles for the old as well as the very young. ®

    Reg Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 15:25

  • So farewell then, Child Support Agency

    Bad news for EDS? Not likely

    The beleaguered Child Support Agency should be be phased out and replaced with something cheap and simple, the government said today after accepting reforms proposed in Sir David Henshaw's report on child support today. John Hutton, the work and pensions secretary, declared the CSA's closure today after 13 years of hashed …

    Public Sector 24 Jul 2006, 19:50

  • Los Alamos bets on 'creativity' to handle $200m of extra costs

    Efficiencies and imagination tested

    Los Alamos National Laboratory has been hit with a vague and challenging directive to avoid layoffs despite a 10 per cent knock to the lab's budget. The Register has obtained a memo sent out last week by lab director Michael Anastasio that provides the best details to date on the budget impact the lab faces following its recent …

    Physics 24 Jul 2006, 19:56

  • Google and the new punk era of IT

    Comment Unconventional wisdom

    Google recently shocked the IT world by reminding everyone that it actually builds its own servers, a strategy delivering economic advantage over its competitors, and leaving corporate IT departments in the dust. The technology press was full of the industry's reaction, chiding Google and reminding us that conventional wisdom is …

    Hardware 24 Jul 2006, 20:04

  • Ransomware getting harder to break

    The evolution of an 'uncrackable' threat

    Hackers may soon be pushing out ransomware packages so complex that they're beyond the decryption capabilities of the anti-virus industry, according to a study by Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab. The report, Malware Evolution: April – June 2006, Hidden Wars, states that the creators of so-called ransomware packages are …

    Enterprise Security 24 Jul 2006, 20:08