4th December 2006 Archive

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Empower runs out of gas

Messaging specialist cut short

Mobile messaging software company Empower Interactive Group has gone into administration. The company's SMS and MMS software is used by several mobile operators, including Orange UK, Wind in Italy, Singapore's Starhub, and Etisalat in the UAE. Administrators from Grant Thornton UK LLP took over just over a week ago and made all …

Financial News 4 Dec 2006, 08:02
Nike + iPod poses threat to personal security

Could aid stalking and burglary

One of this year's must-have gadgets for music-crazy runners is a security nightmare that could help someone track your movements with relative ease, according to researchers at the University of Washington. The Nike + iPod device transmits data from a gizmo in a runner's shoe to an iPod, where software crunches the numbers …

Music and Media 4 Dec 2006, 09:50
Yahoo! joins Amazon in literary Google snub

You can't have our trade secrets

Yahoo! has refused to provide Google with details of its book digitising programme that Google believes could help it to defend itself in a lawsuit. Amazon.com has already turned down a similar request. The search giant is being sued by publishers and the Authors' Guild over the digitisation of thousands of books which they say …

Financial News 4 Dec 2006, 10:00
Apple iPhone to have two batteries, no network ties?

Digg.com founder cites 'solid' source

Apple's upcoming iPhone will go on sale next month with two memory capacities and no ties to a specific network, it has been claimed. The 'small as s**t' handset is based on a slider form-factor, it's said - presumably to better match the iPod design ethos. The latest claims come from Digg.com founder Kevin Rose, whose past …

Reg Hardware 4 Dec 2006, 10:06
Spam: now made in China

And viruses make a festive season appearance

The politics of unwanted email is changing with China set to overtake the US any day now as the originator of most Irish inbox clutter. Figures for November from Irish email monitoring firm IE Internet show that although the US is still the world leader with 27 per cent of dodgy emails originating there, this is a huge drop on …

Security 4 Dec 2006, 10:09
Firms must adapt to Generation Y workforce

Biz not ready for the 'Millennials'

Irish companies are unprepared for the technology demands of their younger workforce or their customers, according to a new report. The study - 'Is Europe Ready for the Millennials?' - was carried out by Forrester Consulting for Xerox. It revealed that 40 per cent of Irish companies have no plans to allow customers to purchase …

IT Director 4 Dec 2006, 10:21
Bubbly meteor hints at seeds of life

It's raining organic molecules

Scientists have found evidence that the seeds of life may indeed have fallen from the sky. Analysis of a meteorite that fell onto the frozen Tagish Lake in Canada in 2000 has shown the space rock to be riddled with organic material that is at least as old as the solar system itself. Researchers speculate that this kind of …

Biology 4 Dec 2006, 10:22
Nintendo Wii starting to ship to UK buyers?

Console sells out in Japan

Nintendo's Wii console may already be en route to some European pre-order customers ahead of this coming Friday's launch day, even as - surprise, surprise - the new games machine sold out in Japan following its launch there this weekend. One Reg Hardware reader told us today he'd received an email from Woolworths confirming …

Reg Hardware 4 Dec 2006, 10:33
Public bodies face disability law change

New code of practice singles out IT systems

The UK's 45,000 public bodies face a fundamental change to the way they operate with the arrival of new disability legislation, which came into force today. The new law was introduced by the Disability Discrimination Act of 2005 which amended the 1995 Act of the same name. It forces bodies to take the needs of disabled people …

Public Sector 4 Dec 2006, 10:43
Samsung intros Ultra Edition media phones

One for music, one for video, one for messaging

Samsung today extended its Ultra Edition line of handsets with a trio of phones pitched at specific usage models: the Ultra Music F300, the Ultra Video F500 and the Ultra Messaging i600, the latter a 3G handset that supports HSDPA-accelerated downloads. The F300 and F500 are tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE devices, both fitted with …

Reg Hardware 4 Dec 2006, 11:09
Sony says battery burn-out probe should have been quicker

Had trouble meeting demand for high-capacity power packs

Sony has admitted it could have moved "more quickly" to tackle the burning battery bug that hit two of the company's biggest power-pack customers, Dell and Apple, and prompted many others to recall Sony-made lithium-ion batteries. In an interview with Japanese-language newspaper the Mainchi Shimbun, relayed by Agence France- …

Reg Hardware 4 Dec 2006, 11:36
Toshiba touts slimline business phone

More colourful 3G handset too

Toshiba's TS32 isn't the thinnest of candybar mobile phones, but at 10.3mm thick it comes very close. Launched today, the tri-band GSM/GPRS handset sports a 1.9in, 176 x 200, 262,144-colour display, Bluetooth 1.2 and a 1.3 megapixel camera. But thin though the 79g TS32 is - the other dimensions are 11.3 x 4.7cm - it also …

Reg Hardware 4 Dec 2006, 12:02
The War on Terror claims doughnuts

Reg reader sees sprinkling of panic

Airport security is a serious business, but why was a Reg reader refused a Krispy Kreme doughnut at Heathrow airport? Admittedly, the sugared snacks contain enough cooking oil and sugar to power a trailer park, but who knew they could be fashioned into bombs? On Saturday afternoon a Reg reader was dropping some friends at …

Music and Media 4 Dec 2006, 12:13
Bath researchers gas up green cars

How do you store your hydrogen?

Researchers at Bath University have developed a new hydrogen storage technique they think could pave the way for greener cars. Hydrogen-powered cars have long been touted as the ultimate in environmentalist transport because they produce no pollutants - only water vapour. But how to safely store the hydrogen fuel has been …

Science 4 Dec 2006, 12:23
Logicalis seals CSF Solutions deal

Buys integrator, data centre

Logicalis UK has upped its stake in the market for big old iron by snapping up CSF Solutions. Logicalis, which is part of the South Africa-based Datatec group, said CSF Solutions brought with it strong relationships with IBM and HP, and a “longstanding customer base” including blue chip clients. CSF Solutions, previously a …

Channel Register 4 Dec 2006, 13:02
Yuletide Weblog roundup

Stob We all like bloggy pudding

Ah, Christmas! When pubs fill up with inexperienced drinkers to the disapproval of regular sots, when lunchtime turkey sarnies get a blob of cranberry jam and are relaunched as 'Christmas dinner flavour' for a 40p premium, and when the moneyed middle-classes are not ashamed to be seen shopping at Woolworth's. Ah, Christmas! …

Verity Stob 4 Dec 2006, 13:10
Alcatel and Microsoft say 'business as usual' despite patent spat

Analysis Let's stay together for the children's sake

The legal action uncovered this week between Microsoft and Alcatel is seen by many as sounding the death knell to their cosy carve up of the IPTV market among global tier one telcos. We wouldn't take the news as being quite so indicative, and would describe it less as the messy divorce that rival players at IBC this year …

Financial News 4 Dec 2006, 13:27
How long until the mobile is the heart of entertainment?

Comment It'll be sooner than you think...

When we first began thinking of the mobile phone as "our identity" it became obvious overnight that it was the most personal and handy portal for all entertainment services. But how long will it take until that eventuality comes about. It's not hard to see that the mobile phone, modeled as it is more and more on the Star Trek …

Mobile 4 Dec 2006, 13:55
BT Vision is go

All singing, all dancing, all kicking launch

BT said it expects to sign up hundreds of thousands of subscribers for its Vision TV over broadband service within the year, with two to three million subscribing in the medium term. At today's launch in London, BT consumer MD Gavin Paterson finally unveiled pricing for the service and promised 5,000 hours of instant on-demand …

Networks 4 Dec 2006, 13:58
Auditors cast shadow on NASA's moon budget

Too many tax dollars at stake

NASA is under increasing pressure from government auditors to rein in its budget for getting astronauts back to the moon. According to Florida Today, the space agency has already started making changes to Orion, the spacecraft that will carry the astronauts, to bring its long term spending back under control. It is also …

Space 4 Dec 2006, 15:24
AMD in chip top 10 for first time

Intel still the Bryan Adams of silicon

AMD can kiss goodbye to its scrappy underdog status after forcing its way into the world chip rankings top 10 for the first time. The Opteron vendor has been worrying the iSuppli top 10 for years, without quite breaking in. However, the analyst firm said that its preliminary figures for this year show AMD has finally made the …

Financial News 4 Dec 2006, 15:44
Bargain: PC World flogging itself for £30

Jump online and bag yourself a computer superstore

It seems PC World management have had enough of Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) raps and investigations that say they can't fix computers, and have decided to jump ship before the going gets any tougher. Reg reader Chris Angle's search for data recovery software on the UK PC World website returned this result: £30 …

Channel Register 4 Dec 2006, 15:46
Yahoo! and Reuters want your phone pics

Citizen journalism

Yahoo! and Reuters are creating a website to collect video and photos taken by readers. The site is called You Witness and will be available from tomorrow here. Initially, the service will provide stills and video media for the Yahoo! website, but from early next year the content will be offered to other Reuters customers. …

Financial News 4 Dec 2006, 15:51
E-Ten Glofiish X500 GPS smart phone

Review Lean, mean location-tracking machine?

You're about to launch your latest all-in-one Windows Mobile 5.0 device but need it to stand out from the plethora of similar PDAs and handhelds. What do you do? Simple, give it a quirky brand name and then tout it as the world's thinnest GPS and Wi-Fi enabled Pocket PC phone... At least that's what E-Ten decided to do with …

Reg Hardware 4 Dec 2006, 16:23
Telabria goes titsup, takes down So Broadband

So long to WiMax ISP

Kent-based wireless ISP Telabria Ltd has called in the liquidators and has begun selling off its network assets. Accountancy firm Smith and Williamson said it had been called in by Telabria directors on 15 November to liquidate the firm. Telabria's wireless networking kit has been sold off to fellow Kent broadband outfit …

Networks 4 Dec 2006, 16:30
Symantec customers stranded by renewals glitch

Updated Anti-virus protection is so last century

Symantec's integration with Veritas in the UK has run into computer problems, leaving many Symantec customers unable to renew their corporate anti-virus licenses and large numbers of computers unprotected. An adviser working for PCWorld Business' national licensing department told us the problem is widespread. "It is affecting …

Anti-Virus 4 Dec 2006, 16:46
Movie studios prep Fraud II for the holidays

Silicon Justice It's still personal

The Motion Picture Association of America have been some busy pigopolists as of late. A recent report from Wired News revealed that MPAA lobbyists helped kill a bill working its way through the California legislature in August designed to prevent companies and individuals from obtaining customer or employee information through …

Music and Media 4 Dec 2006, 19:06
SCO's clusters crippled by missing 'ING'

Stock fails HA test too

The poor SCO Group can't get much right these days, including keeping its high availability clusters highly available. One of our astute readers last week noticed that the clustering page of SCO's web site appeared to be down. And, sure enough, it's still down today, tossing up a "Document Not Found" notice to the myriad …

Servers 4 Dec 2006, 20:14
OSDL fires staff to help it focus

CEO quits to collaborate

Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has declared a change in priorities, deciding to focus less on employment and more on legal issues. The vendor backed consortium has whacked a third of its staffers and waved goodbye to CEO Stuart Cohen. The layoffs apparently reflect the acceptance of Linux "in mainstream IT," while Cohen's …

Financial News 4 Dec 2006, 22:57