The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

27th July 2006 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Net neutrality 'weaklings' must answer to shareholders - FEAF

    Let them eat proxies

    Shareholder meetings look set to become the next battleground in tech and internet companies' fight with US politicians over net neutrality. A self-styled conservative investment group wants Google, Yahoo!, eBay and Amazon to explain to their stock holders why they want the US government to stop broadband service providers from …

    Music and Media 27 Jul 2006, 00:50

  • Symbian: smartphone not dead

    Interview Just waiting to be discovered

    Things haven't had turned out as expected, agrees David Wood, executive VP of research at Symbian. Symbian phones dominate the smartphone market, but last week we suggested a number of reasons why the device category hadn't reached the volumes once predicted. And in many cases, where people have one, they really aren't using the …

    Mobile 27 Jul 2006, 07:02

  • Hidden black holes elude astronomers

    Living up to their name, then

    It would seem, to the casual observer, a relatively simple thing to keep track of something with a mass millions of times that of our sun, but astronomers are having trouble locating supermassive black holes in neighbouring galaxies. The researchers, from the US and Europe, suggest that either black holes are better hidden than …

    Space 27 Jul 2006, 08:27

  • Intel slashes Pentium prices

    Up to 61% off older CPUs

    Intel has taken a sharp knife to its price list, slashing what it charges for its microprocessors by up to 61 per cent as the company makes way for its Core 2 Duo desktop and mobile CPUs. The chip maker also introduced some old-style Pentium D parts. The new Pentium Ds are the 3.4GHz 945 - a version of the existing 950 but …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 08:30

  • United States cedes control of the internet - but what now?

    Review of an extraordinary meeting

    In a meeting that will go down in internet history, the United States government last night conceded that it can no longer expect to maintain its position as the ultimate authority over the internet. Having been the internet's instigator and, since 1998, its voluntary taskmaster, the US government finally agreed to transition …

    Music and Media 27 Jul 2006, 08:54

  • Merom laptops to ship late August

    Intel Japan spills beans on mobile Core 2 Duo

    Intel has published the details of the first 'Merom' mobile Core 2 Duo processors, though the chips will not ship in notebooks until toward the end of August, the chip giant revealed this morning. Intel's Japanese wing confirmed five Merom chips will be made available: the T5500 and T5600, both with 2MB of L2 cache, and the …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 08:58

  • Satellites reveal coral reefs' exposure

    Safe zones just too small

    A new satellite survey of coral reefs has shown that less than two per cent of them are within environmentally protected areas. A team of international researchers compiled the data using a collection of NASA satellite images of Earth. The goal was to update the Millennium Project, an inventory of so-called "marine protected …

    Biology 27 Jul 2006, 09:01

  • Caspar to support the information lifecycle

    Digital preservation

    A UK organisation is to lead an EU project on the long term preservation of digital data on culture and science The Council for the Central Laboratory for the Research Council (CCLRC) will lead the Caspar project (Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval), it has been announced. Funded …

    Public Sector 27 Jul 2006, 09:19

  • Apple admits MacBook, MacBook Pro issues

    Funny colours or funny sounds - either way, call tech support

    Apple has acknowledged problems with its Intel-based portables that buyers have been banging on about for some time. In two support documents, the company informs suffering users to contact its AppleCare customer service team. That's it - just contact AppleCare. No solution is offered for the "high-pitched buzzing sound" …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 09:26

  • BT's new wave buoys up profits

    New biz grows revs

    BT brought in revenues of £4.8bn in the first quarter ended 30 June 2006 - up three per cent on the same period last year and in line with analysts' expectations. Profit before tax and after specific items was £615m, up from £499m in the first quarter of 2005. Profit before specific items and leaver costs was £1.386bn, up from …

    Financial News 27 Jul 2006, 09:26

  • The SMB hype cycle

    'Here we go again'

    Every few years, we hear a surge in the talk about "the SMB opportunity" and what IT vendors can do to exploit it. Yet smaller organisations have been using IT for a long time now, and there is a well established community of suppliers that has been servicing their needs for many years. So what's behind all this recent …

    Small Biz 27 Jul 2006, 09:44

  • Samsung touts 13.5mm-thick digital TV slider phone

    Thinnest in the world, apparently

    Another day, another Samsung slimline slider phone. This one - it's just 1.4cm thick - also extends the company's long line of handsets capable of picking up satellite-sent Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) television pictures. The SCH-B500 packs in a two megapixel camera, Bluetooth, an MP3 player and all the other …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 09:50

  • Sex and PS2 sessions sapped Ronaldinho

    Brazil's World Cup exit explained

    A rationale for Brazil's inglorious exit from the World Cup has emerged. England's arguably even more inglorious exit in Germany was variously blamed on a combination of manager Sven Goran Eriksson's tactical ineptitude, the side's continued inability to take penalties, and Portuguese winker Cristiano Ronaldo1. Brazil's malaise …

    Bootnotes 27 Jul 2006, 10:02

  • MySpace for adults touts 18+ credentials

    Paedophile proof? Not really

    A predictable new MySpace-alike has been launched, this time targeting the adult market. The company behind Utherverse.com is trumpeting that only those over 18 will be allowed to sign up, side-stepping increasing concerns from parents about their offspring being exposed to lurking paedophiles on the popular Murdoch-owned …

    Music and Media 27 Jul 2006, 10:07

  • Russian rocket destroys 18 satellites

    Ground control to major explosion

    A Russian rocket carrying 18 satellites crashed on launch in Kazakhstan late Wednesday. Mission contollers reported the rocket's engines shut down 86 seconds into the flight. The Russian-built Dnepr vehicle - a converted ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) - then piled into the ground 25km away. There were no injuries. …

    Space 27 Jul 2006, 10:08

  • Memorex readies handheld iPod videoscreen

    iFlip waves farewell to portable DVD players?

    Memorex is preparing an iPod accessory that converts the diminutive digital music player into one of those portable DVD display machines - minus the optical drive, of course. Dubbed the iFlip, the unit connects a stowed video-capable iPod to an 8.4in, 480 x 234 widescreen LCD. Memorex officially leaked details and pics of …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 10:16

  • Record industry close to settlement with Kazaa

    Legit P2P?

    The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) is close to agreeing on a legal settlement with file-sharing network Kazaa. If reports are correct, a deal could be announced today. The peer-to-peer network (founded by Skype creators Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom) and its parent company Sharman Networks have been bogged down …

    Music and Media 27 Jul 2006, 11:03

  • MS announces plans to deliver IE7 as security update

    Ready or not

    Microsoft has announced plans to offer Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update to customers as soon as the long-awaited browser update becomes available. IE7 will be distributed via Microsoft's automatic update service in a bid to offer customers improved protection against security threats. The final version of the …

    Applications 27 Jul 2006, 11:45

  • Insights from Reg readers on SOA

    Reg Reader Studies Findings from the latest reader study

    When we asked about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the last big reader research study, we weren't sure what kind of response we would get. We knew that in some quarters SOA had been discussed as mostly vendor hype, and we also suspected that stories of widespread adoption were probably a little exaggerated. As it …

    Tech Panel 27 Jul 2006, 11:55

  • Firefox users need to update (again)

    Security fix targets JavaScript flaws

    The Mozilla Foundation has released an updated version of Firefox following the discovery of multiple security vulnerabilities involving the popular browser software. The flaws create a means for hackers to conduct cross-site scripting or to otherwise seize control of vulnerable systems. Many of the bugs involved the handling …

    Applications 27 Jul 2006, 11:57

  • Code inheritance and reuse: a delicate balancing act

    The pot of gold at the end of many rainbows

    There are two primary concepts that are used extensively within Java (and indeed other OO languages) to promote reuse - inheritance and componentisation. For many people, inheritance is the obvious (and classic) example of how to achieve reuse within Java systems. However, the ability to plug components together is equally …

    Developer 27 Jul 2006, 12:08

  • Intel Core 2 Duo vs AMD Athlon 64 FX-62

    Review Ding! Ding! Round One...

    Although Reg Hardware published benchmarks for the new Intel Core 2 Duo and Extreme chips almost two weeks ago, it has taken that long for Intel to launch the product formally. If you've got the cash, you should be able to pick one up today. But the question many folk - particularly those with a preference for AMD's processors …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 12:11

  • Mobiles putting children at risk?

    EC investigation kicks off

    The European Commission is investigating the harm that mobile phones do to children. A public consultation began yesterday that will look at protecting minors who use mobiles against inappropriate content, expense, bullying and sexual predators. Almost three-quarters of 12 to 13 year olds own a mobile phone, according to the …

    Mobile 27 Jul 2006, 12:20

  • SOA specs firming up

    No standards yet, but…..

    That old cliché – the trouble with standards is that there are so many of them – could also be applied to the world of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) with real justification. There are many software vendors out there claiming to offer SOA solutions so the coming together of some leading players, towards the end of last …

    Developer 27 Jul 2006, 12:23

  • PSP-friendly Wi-Fi network to go live tomorrow

    Rolling out across Europe. And Australia.

    Sony will tomorrow launch its PlayStation Portable-oriented Wi-Fi hotspot network, though with only 11 sites, perhaps 'network' isn't the right word, particularly given the 7,500 hotspots that are part of rival Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection for the DS. PlayStation Spot is centred on game retailers in London, Milton Keynes, …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 12:54

  • Planets could put the brakes on young stars

    Lindsay Lohan, take note

    The very early stages of planet formation could be responsible for putting the brakes on fast-spinning young stars, according to astronomers using the Spitzer infrared space telescope. The researchers have found that slow spinning stars are five times more likely than their speedier cousins to be encircled by a disk of proto- …

    Space 27 Jul 2006, 13:02

  • Samsung promises 8GB MMCplus card

    High-speed version too

    Samsung will ship 1, 2, 4 and 8GB MMC memory cards later this year, the South Korean giant pledged today. It claimed they will not only be the biggest capacity MMCs on the market. Others in the line-up will offer the fastest data transfers, it said. Branded MMCplus, the cards build on Samsung's existing MMCplus range, which …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 13:14

  • Kazaa goes straight

    Coughs up to record industry

    Kazaa and the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) have settled out of court in a deal which will see the P2P operation hand over $100m to the industry. It'll now join fellow former industry pariah Napster as a fully paid-up digital music distributor. Kazaa's parent company Sharman Networks will cough up the damages to …

    Music and Media 27 Jul 2006, 13:33

  • Capita opts for two heads of ops

    Gives no explanation

    Capita has appointed an insider to its group board, and reshuffled the boardroom to create a new joint role. As of 1 August, Simon Pilling will take up a post as joint chief operating officer, the firm said in a statement, joining Paddy Doyle, one of the firm's founders, who previously held the role of group operating director …

    Channel Register 27 Jul 2006, 14:39

  • Plantronics brings on latest Bluetooth audio kit

    Wireless stereo

    Headset specialist Plantronics has unveiled its autumn collection of Bluetooth earphones and mics, including an iPod Shuffle-like dongle designed to provide wireless stereo audio in a way that's still phone friendly. The dongle - Plantronics calls it a "pod", ho-ho - is the Pulsar 260. It's got its own volume and track skip …

    Reg Hardware 27 Jul 2006, 15:20

  • Carphone Warhorse charges into battle

    'Free' broadband deal snags 476,000 punters

    Carphone Warehouse's overall Q1 revenues were up a tasty 42.1 per cent on 2005, painting a fairly rosy picture for the ever-diversifying group. Its businesses brought in £857.64m in the early part of this year compared to £605.66m for the same period a year ago. Carphone's telecoms outfit TalkTalk enjoyed a whopping 227.7 per …

    Mobile 27 Jul 2006, 16:15

  • Heatwave causes internet humour brown-outs

    Needed: Irony tags and cold water

    Record temperatures have been recorded in California and Europe over the past week, with power outages returning to the Golden State for the first time since the Enron era. But it isn't only the electricity supply that's failing. A commodity that's as rare online as water in the desert, irony, appears to be suffering severe …

    Music and Media 27 Jul 2006, 18:37

  • IBM prepares to make per processor software pricing proprietary

    Analysis PVU or PU?

    Rather than conforming to rivals' software licensing schemes, IBM has decided to go it alone and price software that runs on multi-core chips in a proprietary fashion. IBM argues that its scheme provides a more accurate picture of how different chips perform, although one could claim that IBM is adding extra confusion to an …

    Servers 27 Jul 2006, 21:19

  • Microsoft promises Wall Street that its 'list of ideas' will get Google

    Will look at metrics too

    Having alarmed Wall Street with its $2bn spending plans, Microsoft mounted a charm offensive at its annual financial analyst summit Thursday to try and convince stockholders that investments in search, internet advertising and search will pay off. Kevin Johnson, co-president of platforms and services, led a parade of execs …

    Financial News 27 Jul 2006, 21:48

  • The Long Tail's maths begin to crumble

    Comment What a coccyx!

    "Because my background is physics and economics, I tend to go for data rather than speculation and hand waving," Chris Anderson told an interviewer recently. [ * ] Anderson's Long Tail looks like a hit - and has already achieved the first stage of glory that buzzword-based marketing book authors aspire to - being mentioned on …

    Music and Media 27 Jul 2006, 23:09

  • Microsoft will out run, out compete and out out rivals - COO

    To focus on 'art of selling'

    Microsoft's chief operating officer has preached the virtues of corporate-wide score cards as a tool to maintain customer satisfaction levels and thrash the competition. Kevin Turner told financial analysts it's "no longer enough" for Microsoft to just hit the numbers and added it must focus on "the little things" to keep …

    Operating Systems 27 Jul 2006, 23:37