4th September 2006 Archive

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Yawning public puts convergence on skids - survey

iPod? iPhone? Who cares?

A survey of 3,000 British music buyers should make sobering reading for telecomms executives and label bosses this morning. It shows customers are far more savvy and discerning about the enchantments of the er, 'digital revolution' than vendors and Guardian newspaper interns might hope. The survey shows consumers express a …

Mobile 4 Sep 2006, 01:33
Midwich rebounds onto NEC distie list

Acer who?

AV distributor Midwich has stuck two fingers up to Acer after signing to sell PCs by rival maker, NEC. Midwich split with the Taiwanese PC maker Acer last year following "unsavoury stock commitments and low attainable margins," the distributor said in a statement. Lee Baker, Divisional Manager, at Midwich said in a statement …

Channel Register 4 Sep 2006, 04:02
Vulcan bomber project reaches for the sky

Millionaire's donation saves restoration trust

Next year's planned fly past over London to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war now looks likely to feature a Vulcan bomber after a multi-millionaire intervened with his cheque book to save a restoration project dedicated to getting an example airborne, The Daily Telegraph reports. Sir Jack Hayward - owner of …

Science 4 Sep 2006, 08:20
World sales sauntered upward in July

So much for Intel, AMD price cuts

World chip sales grew a little in July, with sale up just 1.8 per cent on the previous month's figure, the US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported this past Friday. Sales for the month total $20.1bn. So much for the price cuts announced by both AMD and Intel in early July. If they stimulated the market, they did …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 08:46
Poetry in slow motion

Stob A Betjeman fan challenges the current laureate

Thanks to the Beeb's correctly extensive celebrations of Sir John Betjeman's centenary, Betjmania is once more abroad and has conquered everywhere. (Everywhere? Well, as they say in the Asterix books, everywhere except one tiny village...) In recent days, hooded teenagers have abandoned their accustomed role as shopping …

Software 4 Sep 2006, 08:54
ESA celebrates SMART's lunar smash

Deep impact?

Europe's first lunar probe made its crash landing yesterday in the Moon's Lake of Excellence region at 0542 GMT (0642 BST). The European Space Agency said the landing was the conclusion of a very successful mission. The SMART-1 probe was designed to test innovative space technologies, such as its ion-engine propulsion system. …

Space 4 Sep 2006, 09:01
Brazilian traffic warden saws woman in half

Updated Parking infraction ends in murder

Those readers who believe the UK's traffic wardens are the emissaries of Satan should count themselves lucky that they don't live in Rio de Janeiro's Botafogo district - where infractions of local bylaws can have fatal consequences. That's what 51-year-old businesswoman Edna Souza found out after she got into a scrap with a " …

Bootnotes 4 Sep 2006, 09:06
Apple to launch movie store, new iPods next week?

Core 2 Duo iMacs too, reports claim

Tuesday, 12 September is the big coming out day for Core 2 Duo-based iMacs, new generations of iPod and iPod Nano, and Apple's iTunes Movie store, it has been claimed after Apple began mailing out invites to the media to come along to Cupertino or attend a London-hosted simulcast of the proceedings. A satellite transmission …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 09:11
Sandisk unveils V-mate MPEG-4 recorder

IFA 06 TV straight to flash memory

Sandisk has launched its new V-mate MPEG-4 video recorder for mobile devices this weekend at IFA. It allows you to record your favourite TV programs or any other kind of video straight onto a memory card, much like the Neuros MPEG-4 recorder. The V-mate offers the ability to select the playback device and will then record in …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 09:48
TV research to double visible colours

Palette breakthrough

Swiss researchers are developing a colourful new technology that allows televisions to display every hue the human eye can detect. The nano-technology research, underway at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (SFIT), aims to double the range of colours televisions can produce. Most of today's televisions can only display …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 09:51
Wi-Fi guidance becomes law in California

Manufacturers to warn on wireless security

California legislators have passed a law which will force makers of wireless internet equipment to include guidance on keeping data secure on wireless connections. The law now awaits signature by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. From 1 October 2007, manufacturers must place warning labels on all equipment capable of receiving Wi …

Enterprise Security 4 Sep 2006, 10:04
Nvidia releases latest driver package

Version 91.47 now available for download

Nvidia has updated its ForceWare 90 drivers. Version 91.47 is now available for download and essentially rolls the company's Quad SLI drivers, previously available separately as ForceWare 91.45, into the standard package. It also adds support or the GeForce 7600 GS AGP and 7100 GS products. The graphics-chip maker also said …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 10:32
Intel rolls out Celeron D 360

Extends budget CPU line

Intel has added a 3.46GHz processor to its Celeron D chip line up. The 65nm LGA775 part contains 512KB of L2 cache and operates across a 533MHz frontside bus. It supports 64-bit addressing and the execute-disable bit. The Celeron D 360's debut was anticipated: it popped up on Intel's July roadmap updates. The chip giant has …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 10:43
T-Mobile unveils MDA Compact III GPS smart phone

IFA 06 AKA HTC's Artemis

HTC's upcoming GPS-equipped navigation phone, codenamed 'Artemis', will ship on the T-Mobile network in Germany, the carrier revealed at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin last week. The device will be offered as the MDA Compact III. The handset was snapped by German website PPC Welt, which has a number of shots of …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 11:08
R.I.P. Steve Irwin

Crocodile Hunter dies in freak stingray incident

Register readers and hacks were this morning digesting the tragic news of the death of colourful Aussie wildlife presenter Steve Irwin following a stingray attack. Vulture Central's favourite daredevil reptile-botherer and conservationist was filming a documentary off the Queensland coast. Authorities said he received a barb …

Biology 4 Sep 2006, 11:09
MySpace punts 'MyTunes', targets Apple

Direct selling to cut out record companies

MySpace is to start selling some of its music content, the Murdoch-owned social networking site said on Friday. In a totally expected move, the adolescent hive mind has decided to make the efforts of some three million unsigned bands available for download DRM-free. Details are scant - pricing has not been finalised - but …

Music and Media 4 Sep 2006, 11:14
Atlantis countdown resumes

Gotta be flying by Friday

NASA is ramping things up again ahead of the rescheduled launch of the Shuttle Atlantis this Wednesday 6 September. The launch was originally scheduled for 27 August, but a lightning strike followed by the almost-hurricane Ernesto meant the countdown had to be halted. Ernesto looked quite menacing, but was officially a mere …

Space 4 Sep 2006, 11:19
ID theft hits home in Canada

Property scams create legal chaos

Identity thieves posed as home owners in order to sell the rental property of an elderly Canadian immigrant. Paul Reviczky, 89, who fled Hungary for Canada in 1957 in order to escape communism, has become the latest in a string of victims of property title fraud in Canada, the Toronto Star reports. Reviczky's bungalow in the …

Music and Media 4 Sep 2006, 11:23
Armageddon website puts apocalypse on hold

It's not the end of the world: official

Those among you who are increasingly concerned that the end of the world is indeed nigh - as evidenced by natural disaster, war, plague, famine and the increasingly unpredictable behaviour of Naomi Campbell - should rush over to Countdown to Armageddon where you'll find just about everything you ever wanted to know but were too …

Music and Media 4 Sep 2006, 11:31
Mobile email: Let's have a heated debate

Join the experts, share in the debate

Mobile email is now an established business tool. It is hard to find an organisation of any size that hasn't introduced it into at least some part of the business, and momentum has started to gather among smaller companies also. If you're not using it yourself, you'll probably know someone who is. Yet in the latest Reg …

Mobile 4 Sep 2006, 11:34
LG shows off 32in 3D display

IFA 06 Three-dimension screens go large

3D displays have been long coming, but the models so far have been fairly small in size and have been fairly unimpressive. However, LG showed of a 32in 3D display at IFA in Berlin which did quite a good job of adding to the depth of field. The only downside was the 4m ideal viewing distance, although this shouldn't be too …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 11:36
Bribes could increase maths intake

Oxford rector suggests cash reward for A grades

The head of an Oxford college has suggested that simple bribery might help boost the numbers of students taking maths at A-level. Frances Cairncross, the rector of Exeter College, says a £500 reward for students who get a grade A at A-level might help sustain a recent increase in the number of students taking the subject, the …

Science 4 Sep 2006, 11:56
Samsung previews updated credit-card phone

IFA 06 Won't mistake this one for a calulator...

Samsung's credit card-sized phone, the P300, is to be updated, Samsung revealed at the IFA consumer electronics show last week. The new version, the P310, ditches its predecessor's pocket-calculator look and boosts the on-board camera to two megapixels. Samsung's SGH-P310... The SGH-P310 - to give it its full designation …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 12:01
ATI shows Dell XPS 700 with X1950 XTX CrossFire

IFA 06 Dell XPS gets CrossFire treatment

Reg Hardware spotted a Dell XPS 700 powered by an ATI X1950 XTX CrossFire setup on ATI’s stand at IFA. Rather interestingly this configuration is not as yet available from Dell and indicates the use of a different motherboard than the Nvidia one in the current XPS 700 systems. Current models of the XPS 700 are based on an …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 12:17
IFA 06 Toshiba unveils Euro HD DVD player line-up

Toshiba will bring its first living room HD DVD player to Europe in November, the company announced late last week. It will follow up the mainstream launch with a higher end model early the following month, the company added. First out of the door is the HD-E1, capable of handling not only pre-recorded HD DVDs, but DVD and CD …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 12:29
To iterate is human

Iterator versus the Enumeration Method

In the previous article, I made the following observation: A collection that holds its elements but doesn't allow you to traverse them is unlikely to prove popular. There are many ways to offer traversal, but if the caller needs to be able to know the position of elements in some way there are essentially only three general …

Developer 4 Sep 2006, 12:58
US missile defence radar hits stormy seas

$815m behemoth flounders

The future of the US's much-hyped, $815m Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX) platform is in serious doubt after a raft of sceptics expressed doubts that the sea monster could ever effectively operate in its intended final mooring off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. The SBX - designed to detect incoming ICBMs - is currently wallowing in …

Science 4 Sep 2006, 13:12
US Marine unearths nukes, cocaine and $25m

Iraq paydirt for the Lads from Lagos

The Lads from Lagos have been a little too quiet of late, or at least that part of their operation dedicated to composing new and provocative variations on the 419 email seems to have been on extended vacation. We're glad, then, to offer you this delightful ditty, hot from the inbox: From: transact0001@terra.es [mailto: …

Spam 4 Sep 2006, 13:17
Sony Ericsson P990i smart phone

Review How the mighty has fallen...

Announced almost a year ago, Sony Ericsson's flagship smart phone, the P990i, is finally making its way into the shops. Over four generations - the first, a larger device codenamed 'Pamela' never made it to market - the P series has become the single most popular smart phone design in the world, largely because Sony Ericsson …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 13:22
Security experts cry foul over Browzar

Browser beware

Security experts are crying foul over a new supposedly secure browser application. Browzar is promoted as an easy way for users to surf the web without leaving traces of sensitive information behind on their PCs. Critics say it fails to do what it says on the tin and, worse still, the software manipulates search results to push …

Security 4 Sep 2006, 14:34
Space: inspirational, but full of greybeards

So says report

The utterly impartial Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) has published a report outlining how investment in space exploration can encourage youngsters to get into science and improve educational standards and skills. PPARC sent its survey to teachers, students, and those working in industry. It concluded …

Space 4 Sep 2006, 14:54
Nokia to integrate satnav into N-series devices

Built in GPS in N-series phones

Nokia last week kicked off its plan to build GPS-based satellite navigation technology onto its N-series "multimedia computer" handsets with the acquisition of German route-planning software developer Gate5. Gate5 has produced route-planning software since the late 1990s and has developed software for several platforms …

Reg Hardware 4 Sep 2006, 16:17