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25th July 2006 Archive

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  • Nintendo coughs to console case crack problem

    Free repair implied

    Nintendo has admitted that some of its DS Lite handheld games consoles have been affected by a problem that causes the console's case to crack. The company claimed the damage was purely "cosmetic" and does not affect the "gameplay or integrity" of the gadget. Nintendo said the issue affected just 0.02 per cent of the DS Lites …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 08:29

  • Betonsports boss sacked for being arrested

    Don't bet on loyalty

    Betonsports chief executive David Carruthers has been sacked by the firm following his arrest in Dallas last week. In a statement given to the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the company said his contract was terminated yesterday and he had been removed from the board of directors. The statement explained: "This action was taken …

    Music and Media 25 Jul 2006, 08:30

  • European Parliament calls for censorship code of conduct

    Names Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft

    The European Parliament has called on the European Commission to establish a code of conduct governing the online censorship of dissidents. It wants companies such as Google and Telecom Italia to pledge not to help governments censor their citizens. The Parliament has adopted a text denouncing the governments of China, North …

    Music and Media 25 Jul 2006, 08:56

  • Squeezebox maker pitches network music player at audiophiles

    Transporter of delight?

    Slim Devices will ship its first audiophile-oriented network music player in September, the company said today. Dubbed the Transporter, the $1,999 stack-sized system is pitched at music lovers who want better sound quality than the company's Squeezebox can offer. Transporter's functionality largely matches that of its …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 09:02

  • HP signs Baidu for China

    Search and hardware = Yin and Yang?

    HP has signed a deal with Chinese search outfit Baidu to preload its portal onto PCs it ships to China. The tie-up will last a year to begin with, starting October 2006. HP China consumer PC director Wee Kee Yeo said: "The trend of individualisation is spreading quickly through the entire IT industry. HP is trying to achieve …

    Software 25 Jul 2006, 09:06

  • Hitachi-LG preps world's first 4x Blu-ray burner

    Twice the speed of the competition

    Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) will this month ship the world's first 4x Blu-ray Disc recorder, it has been claimed. The higher speed applies only to recording - rewriteable BD-RE media will spin at the more commonplace 2x speed. HLDS' GBW-H10N drive doesn't support dual-layer discs, either, so it's limited to 25GB media, …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 09:17

  • Bowman report highlights MoD misses

    'Too ambitious and poorly managed'

    The National Audit Office (NAO) has said the Ministry of Defence needs to raise its game in managing major projects. It has made recommendations on how the MoD can improve its arrangements for delivering complex military capabilities as part of its report on the Bowman digital communications platform, published on 25 July. The …

    Public Sector 25 Jul 2006, 09:19

  • VAT fraud drives booming UK exports

    Oh dear

    Soaring VAT fraud is significantly inflating the UK's export growth figures. The Ernst & Young ITEM Club Summer forecast, released yesterday, predicts that export growth for 2006 will be more than 15 per cent. "However, once you allow for Missing Trader VAT fraud (MTIC) the headline figures look much more modest and stand …

    Channel Register 25 Jul 2006, 09:21

  • UK declares war on cyberbullies

    Enough, is enough

    The government has published new guidelines to help parents and schools tackle the rise of cyber-bullying. Schools minister Jim Knight also said he would be working with industry to explore what more can be done by ISPs and telcos to help deal with the problem. New research, published by the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), has …

    Music and Media 25 Jul 2006, 10:02

  • Motorola unveils slimmer, 'super 3G' RAZRs

    First GSM slider, the RIZR, too

    Motorola yesterday launched its anticipated slimline KRZR and RIZR handsets, along with two 3G versions of the RAZR and an high-speed incarnation of its SLVR phone. The KRZR K1 cuts 1cm off the RAZR's width, but still crams in a two megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, Bluetooth stereo audio, a MicroSD slot for memory …

    Mobile 25 Jul 2006, 10:04

  • ATI's RD600 Intel edition will ship, says mobo maker

    Short-term roadmap unchanged by merger

    ATI CEO Dave Orton yesterday said the company's short-term roadmap remains the same, whether the firm gets bought by AMD or not, but there's still concern in some quarters that news of the takeover will impact ATI's ability to ship Intel-oriented chipsets in the near future. Well, according to mobo maker DFI, ATI's RD600 for …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 10:19

  • Ubuntu heads for the mainstream

    Interview Rogue distro goes commercial

    Mark Shuttleworth, millionaire cosmonaut and self-funded Linux guru, has managed to make his Ubuntu project the Linux distribution of choice in just two years. But now the friendly brown OS with the cute drumming noises faces an awkward journey towards the commercial mainstream. Ubuntu has had quite a ride in those two years …

    Software 25 Jul 2006, 10:41

  • BenQ readies 'world's first' HDMI monitor

    1080p ready

    BenQ is gearing up to ship what it claims is the world's first computer monitor with an HDMI port. The 24in FP241W will support the full 1080p HD resolution when it ships this coming September. The screen's native resolution is actually 1,920 x 1,200, though the screen's ability to be rotated from landscape orientation to …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 10:48

  • Iraq sat phone shambles costs UK $1.1m

    Huge bill racked up on purloined handsets

    A failure to shut off the service of satellite phones stolen in Iraq has left UK taxpayers almost £600,000 ($1.1m) the poorer. Light-fingered robbers were able to use the nicked phones for up to a year before Foreign Office officials twigged that anything was amiss. The crooks went to elaborate lengths to make the most of the …

    Mobile 25 Jul 2006, 10:50

  • Level 3 has a little lie-down in the sun

    Hot town, summer in the city

    Level 3's data centre on Goswell Road suffered a five-hour outage on Sunday when uninterruptible power supplies got interupted. The hot weather in London meant the company was unable to keep temperatures down earlier on in the week - despite the help of the London Fire Brigade. The company which, according to its website, is " …

    Small Biz 25 Jul 2006, 10:52

  • Panasonic splashes photos on HD TVs

    All your snaps in 1080i

    Panasonic today announced a photo playback device that's ready for the HD TV era. It also supports the high capacity SDHC memory card format the company has been promoting of late and handily featured in its latest digital cameras and camcorders. The DMW-SDP1 is a little more than a memory card reader for HD TVs. The 85g …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 11:10

  • Craigslist robberies rise

    Hold on to your hoodies

    Craiglist isn't just about destroying local newspapers. It's about helping to "disintermediate" the local retail chain, too. Gang members in Northern California recently hooked up with a Craigslist poster who had advertised clothes for sale for a casual mugging encounter, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The items in …

    Music and Media 25 Jul 2006, 11:30

  • EU will fund stem cell science

    But there's a catch

    The EU yesterday decided not to follow the Bush administration's lead and declined to impose a blanket ban on federal funding of scientists doing research on embryonic stem cells. The politicians disappointed scientists, however, by refusing to allow EU cash to be used in projects which involve harvesting stem cells from …

    Science 25 Jul 2006, 11:40

  • Gearing up for DIY BI

    Comment BI for the masses - if they're ready for it

    Every coming trend or market needs a good name to define it, so let’s try this one: DIYBI, the Do IT Yourself Business Intelligence system. The premise being put forward by companies looking to move into DIYBI is that BI so far is only being performed by the largest enterprises, and then only by white-coated rocket scientists …

    Developer 25 Jul 2006, 13:09

  • Amazon founder aims for space

    Commercial space race hots up

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is well and truly in the commercial space race, with details of his planned vertical take-off and landing rocket launcher emerging from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). The company he funds, Blue Origin, filed an environmental assessment report with the FAA, detailing plans for a private launch …

    Science 25 Jul 2006, 13:32

  • Apple ships Bluetooth Mighty Mouse

    Laser tracking enabled

    Apple has launched the wireless incarnation of its Mighty Mouse multi-button, scroll-ball fitted input device. As anticipated from recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filings, the rodent used Bluetooth 2.0 and drops LED optical tracking for a laser-based system. Like the previous, wired version, the wireless MM has …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 13:32

  • Scotty's ashes get new launch date

    James Doohan heads for the stars

    The ashes of actor James Doohan, better known as Star Trek's Scotty, will be sent up into space in October, just over a year after they were originally supposed to leave Earth. The actor died last July from Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia. His wife Wende said it was his life's ambition to go to space. She issued a statement …

    Science 25 Jul 2006, 13:41

  • Skype ships more 'Mac-specific' VoIP app for OS X

    Updated Video conferencing available separately

    Skype has posted version 1.5 of its VoIP client for Mac OS X. It's a pre-release test version and while Skype said the software was now even more Mac friendly than before, the OS X incarnation is still lagging some way behind the Windows release. Available here, the update sports a "simplified", Mac-specific user interface, a …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 14:47

  • Stateside spam slaying stalls

    Goddam zombies

    US efforts to stop the nation serving as the world's top spam relaying nation are stalling. For the first time in more than two years, the US has failed to rein in the hordes of botnet computers that made it the source of 23.2 per cent of the world's spam in Q2 2006. Its closest rivals are China and South Korea, although both …

    Spam 25 Jul 2006, 15:10

  • Micro-ISV: From vision to reality

    Book review Fulfilling the dream of working for yourself

    Every developer working for an employer dreams, at one time or another, about striking out alone. Whether it's a dream of starting up the next Microsoft, or simply the chance to create the perfect widget, it's a common enough fantasy for those working for someone else. And, like all such dreams, there are a few souls brave …

    Small Biz 25 Jul 2006, 15:13

  • Roxio paves way for Mac-compatible Blu-ray burners

    Toast 7 gets BD support... but only if you're an OEM

    Roxio has added Blu-ray Disc authoring support to its Mac-based burning tool Toast 7, the company said today. A sign Apple is planning to equip its upcoming Mac Pro desktops with BD drives? Certainly, Mac-compatible external drives seem thin on the ground right now. However, Roxio is pitching the software not at end-users but …

    Reg Hardware 25 Jul 2006, 15:26

  • Future of the net to be decided tomorrow

    Washington pow-wow will be webcast

    The future of the internet and the US government's role within it will be debated at a public meeting tomorrow in Washington DC. Starting at 1.30pm local time, officials from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will discuss "issues associated with the continuation of the transition of the …

    Music and Media 25 Jul 2006, 15:50

  • Appeal against ISP snooping goes to Washington

    'FCC went too far', coalition says

    A group of technology companies and civil liberties groups will continue to challenge a law requiring ISPs to allow eavesdropping of customers by security agencies. The US Government is trying to force ISPs to re-configure their systems to allow agencies to snoop on email and internet traffic. The relevant laws demand that …

    Music and Media 25 Jul 2006, 16:06

  • Hacker conference PI charged with witness tampering

    HOPE and tribulation

    The private investigator who was arrested by the Feds shortly before he was due to give a presentation on privacy at a hacker convention on Saturday has been charged with witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Steven Rombom (AKA Steven Rambam) allegedly impersonated a federal officer in April 2006 in an attempt to locate …

    ID 25 Jul 2006, 16:19

  • Stem cells flee DC for Xanadu

    Letters Using very pricey passports

    Bush has used his presidential veto for the first time to scupper the federal funding for stem cell research. We understand Nancy Reagan is not happy with him. And neither were you. We wanted to include a letter of Bush-support, for balance, but we didn't get ANY:   "The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of …

    Letters 25 Jul 2006, 16:20

  • IBM's fresh Unix (1) boxes maul old HP servers

    Power upgrade meets software downgrade

    IBM today mucked up a perfectly good Unix server announcement by coating it in a vague, software ooze. As expected, IBM has ratcheted up the speed of the dual-core Power5+ processor and then crammed the chip in its high-end boxes. Customers will find the 16-processor System p5-590 and 32-processor p5-595 shipping with 2.1GHz …

    Servers 25 Jul 2006, 16:47

  • People-chipping tech cloned by hackers

    Cyberfunk

    Hackers demonstrated how to clone a copy of an human-implanted RFID chip at a hacking conference this week. The demonstration goes against claims from people-chipping firm VeriChip that its technology, the subject of the experiment, can uniquely identify an individual. By cloning a chip it would be possible to assume someone's …

    ID 25 Jul 2006, 20:29

  • Sun's Q4 loss/sales spike combo stuns Wall Street

    Speechless

    Call him "Mixed Bag Schwartz." Sun Microsystems' new CEO hit investors with a large net loss but also a surprising, healthy spike in sales, as the company reported fourth quarter results today. Sun posted a net loss of $301m or a loss of 9 cents per share, during the fourth quarter. Those figures compare to a profit of $50m or …

    Financial News 25 Jul 2006, 22:09

  • Boffins map surface of Titan by accident

    Radio ga-ga

    Every planetary landing mission that flies from now on will effectively gain an new sensor set without a single extra piece of equipment, thanks to a chance discovery by scientists working on data from the Huygens lander. When Huygens unexpectedly survived the impact of its landing on Saturn's moon, Titan, the radio signal it …

    Space 25 Jul 2006, 22:18

  • HP drives Mercury Interactive into garage for $4.5bn

    Biggest buy since Compaq

    Hewlett Packard has bought into the application performance and IT governance trend by acquiring Mercury Interactive in HP's biggest deal since the Compaq purchase. HP is splashing out $4.5bn, or $52 per share, working out at a handsome 33 per cent premium over the current price for a company that set the tone for software …

    Financial News 25 Jul 2006, 23:09

  • Ingres grabs Thinking Instruments

    CA insertion too

    CA spin out Ingres has announced its first corporate acquisition in a deal that capitalizes on the core Ingres heritage established by its former parent company. The open source database provider said it has purchased former CA service provider and reseller partner Thinking Instruments, to "immediately broaden its corporate" …

    Financial News 25 Jul 2006, 23:36