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12th January 2007 Archive

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  • O2 ties up with Gandalf

    One ringtone to rule them all

    The stage show of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings opens in London on the 9th of May, and O2 has signed up for exclusive content including ringtones and O2-customer-preview nights. By all accounts the production is visually spectacular, though reviews from Canada were lacklustre, which bodes badly for a show which runs to almost 4 …

    Mobile 12 Jan 2007, 07:02

  • Bill Gates: a man and his music devices

    Video report A Las Vegas legend performs

    Reg Hardware CES video reports All of CES - in five minutes! Bill Gates: a man and his music devices Honda unleashes stair-climbing 'droid HP demos touchy-feely, finger-friendly Vista media PC Windows Vista to connect to Xbox Live Xbox 360 to become internet telly Microsoft previews Halo 3 at CES Want to see more …

    Reg Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 08:02

  • CES 2007: all the stories, all the goodies

    The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) brought a bumper harvest of gadgets and goodies to Las Vegas. Here are all of Reg Hardware's CES 2007 stories, brought together for your reading - and viewing; we've included our exclusive video reports - pleasure... PCs and chips HP demos touchy-feely, finger-friendly Vista media PC Dell …

    Reg Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 08:02

  • AMD stuffed in Christmas run-up

    Intel clear out bites it in the ASP

    AMD’s CPU business took a slap in the fourth quarter as chip selling prices came in lower than expected, it revealed yesterday. The chip vendor said its Q4 revenue, excluding its recently acquired ATI business, would be up just 3 per cent on the previous quarter’s $1.33bn. Analysts had been primed for a numbers neared $1.44bn …

    Financial News 12 Jan 2007, 09:31

  • Don't rush into Vista, schools told

    Becta counsels caution

    A leading government advisory body has advised schools in Britain not to deploy Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, for at least 12 months. The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta), which is the British government's key partner in the strategic development and delivery of information …

    Public Sector 12 Jan 2007, 10:17

  • Email marketing abuse is rife among top UK companies

    31% break anti-spam laws

    A study of the UK's biggest companies has found 31 per cent of them breaking anti-spam laws by sending marketing emails without either prior consent or an existing customer relationship. CDMS, a data and marketing firm, examined compliance with the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications by the top 200 companies …

    IT Director 12 Jan 2007, 10:22

  • Gates Foundation launches investment review

    Good money for unethical companies?

    Bill and Melinda Gates are reviewing policy at their philanthropic foundation after a newspaper investigation revealed it invested in corporations with questionable ethical records. The LA Times discovered cash ploughed into oil companies which have been implicated in environmental disasters in the developing world. The paper …

    Science 12 Jan 2007, 10:30

  • SAP takes a tumble

    Targets missed

    SAP shares fell sharply after the software company admitted it had missed sales targets for 2006. Its shares on the New York Stock Exchange ended the day down ten per cent. The company was aiming for revenue growth of 15 to 17 per cent but only managed to increase sales by 13.5 per cent. Although it warned late last year that …

    Financial News 12 Jan 2007, 10:32

  • The Reg is recruiting

    Vulture seeks editorial threesome

    The Register is looking for reporters and a sub-editor to join its London editorial team. The Register is the UK’s biggest technology and science news website. We’re also pretty big in the US, Canada, Europe and India. Reporters will need at least two years’ experience covering the technology, science or business sectors. Subs …

    Site News 12 Jan 2007, 10:36

  • Supernova topples Pillars of Creation

    A while before we'll see it

    The famous "Pillars of Creation", the subject of the best known of Hubble's images, have already been blown apart by a supernova. We won't see their destruction here on Earth for another thousand years, but the astronomers making the claim estimate that the massive, star-forming pillars that make up the Eagle Nebula were …

    Space 12 Jan 2007, 10:42

  • Kingston ships 1.2GHz DDR 2 DIMMs

    Fastest available?

    Memory specialist Kingston Technology yesterday claimed to be the first company to ship DDR 2 memory modules clocked to 1.2GHz - aka PC2-9600. The firm also made available PC2-9200, 1.15GHz DIMMs. Japan's Buffalo announced a PC2-9600 memory module in September 2006, but it doesn't appear to have begun shipping the product yet …

    Reg Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 11:02

  • ECS touts top-of-the-line Nvidia graphics cards for Vista

    GeForce 8800 based

    Elitegroup (ECS) this week announced its latest flagship Nvidia-based graphics card, based on the GPU maker's GeForce 8800 GTX and equipped with 768MB of GDDR 3 video-buffer memory. It also unveiled a board based on the 8800 GTS. The top-end card is the N8800GTX-768MX. It has a 575MHz core, while the memory runs at 1.8GHz …

    Reg Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 11:02

  • HP snoop cops a plea

    Evidence for the prosecution

    The private detective facing charges over the HP snooping scandal is pleading guilty and will give evidence for the prosecution. Bryan Wagner, of Littleton, Colorado, is charged with identity theft and conspiracy. He is accused of getting hold of a reporter's Social Security number and using it to access their phone records. …

    Music and Media 12 Jan 2007, 11:16

  • Searching for consumers

    Embedded DBs cover most consumer devices

    As more developers find interesting ways of getting more applications and information into consumer devices of all types, the need for a database that can be embedded in consumer units becomes more pressing. To meet this need, Hitachi’s US-based Embedded Business Group is to provide its Entier Relational Database Management …

    Developer 12 Jan 2007, 11:22

  • Contract killer spam scam hits the net

    Mercenary

    Scammers are posing as professional hit men in a bid to frighten punters into handing over large sums of money. Spam emails promoting the scheme claim that the recipient has been stalked by a hired assassin for ten days, but that the killer is prepared to drop the contract if he is paid a total of $80,000. Recipients are told …

    Security 12 Jan 2007, 11:29

  • Abit KN9 SLI Socket AM2 motherboard

    Review SLI for less

    Built around Nvidia's nForce 570 SLI chipset for Socket AM2, the KN9 SLI generated a fair amount of pre-launch anticipation based, not only on the chipset, but also its clean layout, expected selling price and well-rounded spec sheet. Was that anticipation justified? For around £80, the KN9 SLI features a variety of gamer- …

    Reg Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 12:02

  • You are f**king negative arsehole!!!

    FoTW An enraged Machead writes

    Surprise, surprise: our illuminating piece yesterday on possible uses for a dead iPhone provoked a supernova-strength explosion of indignation among the Macheads. Rudee kindly took time from cracking one off over his iPod to write: You are fucking negative arsehole!!! - Blog this Geny Gonzales, meanwhile, felt driven to …

    Odds and Sods 12 Jan 2007, 12:27

  • Carphone celebrates bumper Christmas

    Time to get unbundling

    Carphone Warehouse said it had a fat festive period, adding 7.3 per cent in like-for-like retail revenues for the third quarter According to a trading update issued Friday the outfit now has 2.2m residential broadband punters following the purchase of the AOL customer base in October for £370m. Only 413,000 are on unbundled …

    Telecoms 12 Jan 2007, 13:03

  • EC throws money at OSS quality control

    How 'good' is good?

    The European Commission is investing some of the final chunks of change in its Framework 6 Research and Development budget into four projects dedicated to defining and checking the quality of open source software. The total investment is in the region of €25m, and is being matched by money from industry. The work is being …

    Software 12 Jan 2007, 13:10

  • Bullseye of Oracle patches due Tuesday

    Forewarned is forearmed

    Oracle has taken a leaf out of Microsoft's book by publishing a pre-alert of patches database admins can expect as part of its next patch release cycle. The alert is designed to give administrators a better idea of how much work they have coming up, so that they are then able to allocate time and other resources appropriately …

    Security 12 Jan 2007, 13:40

  • CES in five minutes

    Video report Save yourself an air-fare - it's all here...

    Reg Hardware CES video reports All of CES - in five minutes! Bill Gates: a man and his music devices Honda unleashes stair-climbing 'droid HP demos touchy-feely, finger-friendly Vista media PC Windows Vista to connect to Xbox Live Xbox 360 to become internet telly Microsoft previews Halo 3 at CES Want to see more …

    Reg Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 13:42

  • UK to review school fingerprinting

    Leave them kids alone, as they say

    The Department for Education and Skills is to reconsider the fingerprinting of school children after a four year campaign by parents. Jim Knight, schools minister, told Greg Mulholland, campaigning LibDem MP for Leeds North West, in a letter sent on 12 December, that he would "update the guidance on the use of biometric …

    Music and Media 12 Jan 2007, 14:01

  • iPhone frenzy, Vista ahoy and SAP

    To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here

    Fly your iPhone to the moon Saving the environment is at the forefront of most people’s minds at the moment, with companies going to great lengths to get themselves seen as green. And in true tree-hugging style, we’ve come up with some great ways to dispose of your iPhone – Steve Job’s latest toy to hit the market – after it …

    Business 12 Jan 2007, 14:36

  • The Pirate Bay plans to buy Sealand

    Pirates get sea base

    Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay is planning to buy the 550 square metre principality of Sealand, a former British naval platform in the North Sea that has been designated a 'micronation'. The group has set up a campaign to raise money to buy the self-declared sovereign nation. Outside the jurisdiction of the UK or …

    Music and Media 12 Jan 2007, 14:44

  • iPhone locked down, Apple confirms

    We approve the apps, OK?

    It's a good job Apple's amazing new gadget beats as it sweeps as it cleans - and allows you to leap over tall buildings with one bound. Because it's beginning to look somewhat Dead On Arrival as a competitive smartphone. As several readers have pointed out, the lack of 3G makes the first iteration a hard sell in Europe and Asia …

    Mobile 12 Jan 2007, 15:12

  • Free Vista test

    Can you do Vista?

    Concerned that all the effort you are putting in to develop upgraded applications to run on Microsoft Vista may bring client systems around the company network to a grinding halt? Well, there is a simple way to check those client systems out in advance. Touchstone Software has come up with a free online test system called Vista …

    Developer 12 Jan 2007, 15:18

  • BOFH: It's a funny old world isn't it?

    Episode 2 Adventure time!

    It's a funny old world isn't it? Strange the way things pan out. Take for instance the New Year's truce forged between the PFY and myself. On one hand we reached a landmark accord which allowed us to work in harmony with each other and the users and on the other hand I'm now locked in a dark basement room that the PFY tricked …

    BOFH 12 Jan 2007, 15:35

  • Mobile operators lose millions to SIM boxes

    But it's all their own fault

    If you're getting poor quality on calls to mobile phones at home or abroad, it's probably because of the operator's poor business strategy, not the quality of its wireless network. That's according to Conrad Tuytte, the CEO of network testing specialist Meucci Solutions. He claimed that mobile operators across Europe could be …

    Mobile 12 Jan 2007, 15:47

  • Gay sheep face neutral net censorship plot

    Letters iPhone, uPhone, we all phone together

    It would be wrong to run letters without some kind of reference to that new phone thingey some company or other launched this week. As soon as Apple debuted the iPhone, Cisco unleashed the legal hounds to hunt down and retrieve a the name. To help Apple out, you thought up some alternative names for the handset. And told us why …

    Letters 12 Jan 2007, 16:14

  • Falling margins spell doom for carrier diversification

    Telcos should stick to their knitting

    Telecom carriers are spending billions investing in IP technology but more than half will fail to establish new lines of business over the next four years, according to analyst group Gartner. Mobile broadband, Internet Protocol (IP) technology and the desire to become content providers are increasingly driving telecom carrier …

    Mobile 12 Jan 2007, 16:21

  • Comet McNaught prepares show for Soho

    Nice ion-tail, eh?

    Those of us who live behind the almost permacloud that has covered the south of the UK for the last umpteen days will not have noticed, but apparently there is a comet currently gracing our skies. Comet McNaught has been tearing up the twilight for a little while now, and is even visible with just ordinary eyeballs. NASA's …

    Space 12 Jan 2007, 16:40

  • 'We've reinvented the phone ... as a wheelbarrow'

    Letters Feel those paradigms shift

    Bill Ray had the pleasure of being able to say "I told you so" this week, having correctly predicted the go-to-market strategy and price of Apple's first phone. Here's the response to his post-launch verdict, and a few of other iPhone articles this week: You are coming at this from the current cell phone market paradigm. Apple …

    Letters 12 Jan 2007, 16:41

  • Cisco on brink of losing iPhone name in Europe

    Legal loophole

    Cisco could be on the brink of losing the rights to the iPhone trade mark in Europe, according to trade mark experts. Apple could end up with European rights to iPhone, in contrast to reports around the world suggesting that Cisco's rights were absolute. Cisco this week sued Apple over its use of the iPhone name for its new …

    Mobile 12 Jan 2007, 17:13

  • Spods find God ... in Sadville

    Plus: the first plea for corporate welfare

    Two items of interest for those of you who collect Really Stupid Things People Say About Technology. The BBC indulged Newsnight reporter Paul Mason long enough for him to float this thought our way - We've tended to see heavy internet use as a kind of addiction, or even psychosis. But may be all those people are living richer …

    Music and Media 12 Jan 2007, 17:15

  • Print is dead, long live the printer

    Comment Dot that in yer matrix

    Hi, Annabel Fancy here. A time-slip mailing - I haven't got time to start this company here in the second decade of the millennium, so I thought you might like to try it. It's an internet printing business. You can use it; just mark me down for one per cent of share equity in exchange for royalty-free use. Here's how it works …

    Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 17:27

  • Confering developers

    Two talkfests for your diary

    Here’s a long range heads-up on a couple of conferences that should tickle the interest of many developers. First up is itself a `first’, though give the subject – Software Assurance – it is quite likely to be the first of many. This first Software Assurance Workshop is being promoted by the Object Management Group and will …

    Developer 12 Jan 2007, 17:41

  • Man-in-the-Middle phishing kit netted

    Sinister haul

    A new kit for sale in the digital underground makes it easier for fraudsters to run more sophisticated phishing fraud attacks. The Universal Man-in-the-Middle Phishing Kit enables fraudsters to sit between prospective marks and legitimate businesses. Rather just setting up a bogus website that's promoted through spam email, …

    Enterprise Security 12 Jan 2007, 17:47

  • EMC's Insignia brand here to stay, despite layoffs

    Until it isn't

    Contrary to rival propaganda, EMC's Insignia line of products will continue to live on as the preferred gear for small- and medium-sized businesses. That is until EMC kills the brand. EMC's competitors in the storage game have suggested that the giant might scrap the Insignia kit launched last February due to a lack of …

    Storage 12 Jan 2007, 17:49

  • AT&T razes the Cingular brand

    Branding iron

    AT&T is consigning the Cingular name to the dustbin of history. Its wireless operator will now also be known as AT&T. The telco kicks off a "transitioning" ad campaign on Monday and will also begin changing the livery on company buildings and vehicles. It's not saying how much this all costs, but the bill will easily run into …

    Mobile 12 Jan 2007, 19:02

  • SGI hermit crabs over to Sunnyvale

    Thanks for the memories, Mountain View

    After once dominating the Silicon Valley suburb of Mountain View, SGI has packed up and moved to Sunnyvale - the latest shift in the company's resurrection agenda. Not too long ago, SGI owned numerous, massive complexes on either side of the central Mountain View artery Shoreline Boulevard. Those buildings have since been …

    Financial News 12 Jan 2007, 19:08

  • Feds scrutinize backdated options awarded Steve Jobs

    Bogus grant date, non-existent meeting

    If Steve Jobs is indeed able to defy gravity at times, as the New York Times suggested today, backdated stock options given to the larger-than-life Apple CEO may prove to be the tractor beam that brings him crashing back to earth. Federal authorities are investigating grants made to Jobs that carried a false October 2001 date …

    Financial News 12 Jan 2007, 20:32

  • Dell accused of selling defective notebooks - again

    Motherboards conveniently go kaput after warranty expires

    A lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court alleges that Dell notebooks suffer from design defects that cause premature failure of the motherboard due to overheating. The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of an Ontario owner of an Inspiron PC, according to articles by the Canadian Press and the …

    Hardware 12 Jan 2007, 21:50