The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

10th May 2007 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Jajah taps Intel for $15m

    Capital news

    Intel Capital is the lead investor in a $20m funding round for Jajah, the internet telephony software firm. Intel is pumping in $15m to help Jajah in its goal to supplant Skype as the mass-market VoIP provider of choice, the company said today. Jajah uses PCs for internet phone calls - but only to set up the calls. It then …

    Channel Register 10 May 2007, 00:18

  • Spitzer stargazers find hot, windy planets

    NASA does exo-weather

    NASA has moved into extra-solar planetary weather forecasting. Well, mapping, but one has to start somewhere. Researchers using the agency's Spitzer infrared space telescope have mapped the weather patterns of two extremely hot, distant planets. The May 9th edition of Nature carries a description of the winds on the surface of …

    Science 10 May 2007, 00:26

  • Ballmer: Submit and OBA-y

    Software 2007 Ignore Duet's sad song

    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hawked Office Business Applications during his keynote at the Software 2007 conference, but conceded during a Q&A session that the company's best-known OBA, called Duet, has not made the progress desired, given the time invested in it. Duet is a joint project of SAP and Microsoft which integrates …

    Applications 10 May 2007, 02:42

  • Sun looks to outsiders to script Java's future

    JavaOne Step lively

    Sun is seeking developers outside the "Java rank and file" to join the Java Community Process (JCP) standards body. The company is eying up content authors and scripting developers as JCP recruits to deliver feedback and drive platform and language changes. Sun has already added byte code to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for …

    Developer 10 May 2007, 04:19

  • Grappling with eels - first wriggle

    Column The Slippery World of Agile Planning

    Harry the Rottweiler puts down his corporate-branded coffee cup next to his spiral-bound Book of Names and cheap plastic retractable (which also doubles as a sacrificial weapon in extreme management meetings). The stench of stale coffee wafts from beneath his snarling upper lip. Out of all the people in the room, he’s staring …

    Developer 10 May 2007, 07:02

  • UK threatens TV premium rate ban

    Get your house in order, or else

    The Government will ban television premium rate phone-ins if the industry cannot better regulate itself, broadcasting minister Shaun Woodward has warned. Woodward said the Government takes the spate of recent mistakes and breaches of regulators' codes "very seriously", and that it would ban the use of the numbers for TV quizzes …

    Government 10 May 2007, 08:52

  • E Ink reprints electronic paper for all handheld gadgets

    It's not just for ebooks, you know

    'Electronic paper' developer E Ink yesterday paved the way for bigger, brighter displays for almost any handheld gadget you can think of - all consuming a tiny fraction of the power today's LCDs do and all able to continue showing information even when the power is cut. The catch is that the screens are still black and …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 09:00

  • MS fixes Vista iPod corruption glitch

    Ejection protection

    Microsoft has posted a patch for Windows Vista that finally allows iPod owners to eject their music player from PCs running the new operating system without the risk that songs will be damaged. The updates - one each for the 32- and 64-bit versions of Vista - can be downloaded from Microsoft's support site here. Apple …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 09:17

  • Latent problems with people, not networks

    Column Could I have a hot air detector with that, please

    I have a useful hot air detector. It listens for two or three keywords and marks the output of anybody using them as suspect. For example, "video conferencing", or "artificial intelligence", or "cheap fusion power". So when the new managing director of BT Global started his presentation Q&A last week by waving his arms about …

    Mobile 10 May 2007, 09:23

  • Coalition forces offer Iraq action footage

    If you can't beat 'em, join 'em - on YouTube

    The coalition forces' HQ in Baghdad has decided not to let the opposition keep on grabbing all the internet-video eyeballs, and has started its own channel on popular upload portal YouTube. Called MNFIRAQ (Multi National Force Iraq), the channel pledges to offer "combat action" and "interaction between Coalition troops and the …

    Music and Media 10 May 2007, 09:34

  • Gaming, music and TV to drive mobile market

    Mobile TV alone to generate €4.7bn by 2010

    Mobile content is set for a revolution, with gaming, music and TV all poised to transform the market in the next five years. With regulatory and competitive pressures pushing down the average consumer spend on voice and messaging, Screen Digest mobile analyst David McQueen advised mobile operators to look to new content …

    Mobile 10 May 2007, 09:38

  • Watchdog slams tax credit system

    'Flood of money' still being wasted

    Software upgrades and a redesigned e-portal have failed to convince the Public Accounts Committee that problems with tax credits can be solved. Parliament's Committee of Public Accounts said HM Revenue and Customs has failed to design the tax credits system to give proper protection against error and fraud. In a report (pdf) …

    Government 10 May 2007, 09:44

  • Electro-optic film set to foil DVD shoplifters

    Discs unplayable until purchased

    For once here comes a digital protection technology designed to stop shoplifters rather than prevent consumers copying content. US-based Kestrel Wireless this week announced a plan to make DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs unplayable until they've been purchased. It's a simple scheme: each disc is coated with an electro-optic …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 09:59

  • Data centre firm in €50m expansion

    Interxion eyes up Europe

    Data centre firm Interxion is to invest up to €50m to expand its data centres across Europe. The company has seen a surge in demand for space across Europe, with the Irish business observing a similar trend. "Interxion has experienced strong growth in all European markets with 70 per cent of demand coming from the existing …

    Financial News 10 May 2007, 10:04

  • Patent damages not refunded if EPO cancels patent

    'Bad business sense,' court rules

    Damages for patent infringement awarded by a UK court must not be paid back even if the patent is later declared invalid by the European Patent Office (EPO), the Court of Appeal has ruled. The court was addressing the question of which body has the final say in a patent case, a UK court or the EPO. It ruled that when the UK …

    Law 10 May 2007, 10:32

  • Don't let Windows Indexing Service know too much

    Privacy workshop Keeping index files under control

    The Windows Indexing Service catalogues the contents of your hard disk, and even the contents of files, to make local searching faster. This service creates and later consults a number of small databases containing data about your disk's contents, including the actual contents of files, which can undermine the practice of good …

    Security 10 May 2007, 10:33

  • From information overload to communication overload

    Who needs nine ways to be put on hold?

    Most new technology goes through a number of cycles as its use evolves - the novelty of invention, the feature explosion of differentiation, then hopefully the robustness of consolidation. The third stage is generally too slow to arrive, as new features are often seen as the way to stay ahead. In the early 1990s arms race in …

    CIO 10 May 2007, 10:53

  • Motorola greenlights movie phone

    Motorola will next week take the wraps off a phone capable of showing "full-motion" Hollywood movies, the company's chief said yesterday, though he went some way from promising a true personal media player experience. Speaking in the US, Motorola CEO Ed Zander said next week's launch would include a Euro-centric 3G handset …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 10:57

  • Good news drowned by wave of security blunders

    To subscribe to Channel Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of channel news in a single hit - click here.

    As always, we'll begin with the good news, not because we're people who like to look on the bright side of life, but because it's quicker to get it out of the way now. HP upped its sales and profits forecast for the second quarter, revealing it would add another billion dollars in sales, and earnings per share would be up seven …

    Channel Register 10 May 2007, 11:02

  • Google Earth to get sound enhancement

    Hear the planet spinning

    The sounds of the planet are to be linked to Google Earth to enable users to hear what a place sounds like, as well as what it used to sound like. Bernie Krause has spent 40 years collecting the sounds, and his company Wild Sanctuary has accumulated over 3,500 hours of recordings, covering everything from the cracking of …

    Applications 10 May 2007, 11:08

  • Online ads rouse 33% hike in complaints

    Watchdog calls for better web regulation

    Complaints about online adverts in the UK rose by 33 per cent in 2006, according to an annual report from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). It found that internet adverts were second only to national press as the most complained about non-broadcast format, and said this reflected a need for tighter regulation of web- …

    Law 10 May 2007, 11:11

  • It's no lemon: MS shows yellow Simpsons Xbox 360

    Always leave 'em Groening for more

    It's the ideal games console for anyone who's too kack-handed to be any good at games: Microsoft's Homer Simpson-styled limited edition Xbox 360 Pro, announced today to tie in with this summer's The Simpsons Movie. The film opens in the US and the UK on 27 July, but while it'll be easy to give a view, getting your mitts on …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 11:39

  • DTI poses perennial sci/tech problem

    After ten years of Blair, the song remains the same

    As the UK's political class tots up Tony Blair's scorecard, there's one area where New Labour hasn't made much progress: Whitehall still feels compelled to organise summits to ask how we can all turn the UK into the world's greatest knowledge econonmy. The earache has all stemmed from the Lisbon Agenda, which in 2000 held the …

    Government 10 May 2007, 12:07

  • NASA releases movie-style trailer

    NASA was created by man. There were many missions. And they have a plan.

    Clearly influenced by the styles of modern sci-fi, NASA has released a movie-style trailer promoting the next Moon missions. A video showing exciting and dynamic CGI footage of astronauts building an early incarnation of Moonbase Alpha has appeared on YouTube. Complete with three or four word taglines flashing up on screen …

    Space 10 May 2007, 12:09

  • Evesham makes compact LCD TV, builds in DVD

    A second LCD TV for the bedroom, sir? With this little 'un from Evesham you won't be stuck for stuff to watch. There's a Freeview digital tuner. And a DVD player. And a Flash drive-friendly USB port. And a three-in-one memory card reader. The display's a 10.4in panel with a resolution of 640 x 480 and - for the colour buffs …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 12:10

  • Terminator-style flying-HK killbots join US, UK forces

    'Reaper' droids prepare to harvest fleeing humans

    The US Air Force has announced it has ordered a further quartet of MQ-9 'Reapers', worth $59m, to supplement its initial fleet of seven. A decision on full-rate production is expected in 2009. Meanwhile, the head of the Royal Air Force said last week that the UK will also deploy its first fully-armed Reapers "later this year …

    Science 10 May 2007, 12:35

  • Credit card fraud fears cloud Operation Ore

    Double jeopardy for fraud victims?

    Many of the child abuse download suspects snared in Operation Ore may have been innocent victims of credit card fraud, according to a BBC investigation. Operation Ore, the UK's biggest ever child pornography investigation, involved the prosecution of 2,000 suspects among 7,000 Brits whose credit cards were used to pay for …

    Crime 10 May 2007, 12:35

  • Google gives UK mobile maps the green light

    Service hits first gear

    Google Mobile Maps is now available to UK users for route planning and local searching. The service, integrated with Google Earth for showing satellite images, has been available as a Java application for a while. But with the UK launch Google has enhanced the route-planning capability, as well as adding searches for local …

    Mobile 10 May 2007, 12:36

  • Big Blue puts power-guzzling data centres on a diet

    $1bn a year push to double capacity by 2010 using no more juice

    IBM is expected to announce a $1bn per year plan to double the worldwide computing capacity of its data centres by 2010 without increasing power consumption. An article on the New York Times' website suggests that Big Blue engineers will use a range of technologies to rein in electricity-guzzling computer facilities. These …

    Servers 10 May 2007, 12:37

  • Fujitsu Siemens hits the road

    Beating the drum with Primergy

    Computer maker Fujitsu Siemens (FSC) has said it plans a series of channel roadshows in the UK for its Primergy servers. The firm said sales of its Primergy range had risen strongly over the past three months off the back of a heavy channel marketing campaign. Events are scheduled for Birmingham, London, Edinburgh and Bolton …

    Channel Register 10 May 2007, 12:45

  • Joost gets $45m to play with

    Inflatable board rooms a go-go

    Joost; the peer-to-peer video service developed by those behind Skype, has raised $45m from Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and the Li Ka Shing Foundation, to "...accelerate product development, global expansion, localization, and service offerings". Index Ventures are old mates from Skype, while Sequoia Capital are new to the …

    Telecoms 10 May 2007, 12:57

  • Xoro HSD 7510 DVD player-equipped LCD TV

    Review Practical and portable?

    Portable TVs are hardly a new idea. Neither for that matter are portable DVD players. However, put the two together, add a host of other features and then you do have something that feels like it's breaking new ground. Right out of the box the Xoro feels like a robust and reliable machine, with its chunky looks and …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 12:59

  • Computer saves shredded Stasi files

    600 million pieces of totalitarian history

    East German historians have employed the help of a computer program to reconstruct 16,000 sacks of shredded paper that once documented the snooping of the Stasi police. The job was previously done by hand, with a team of 30 workers piecing together 350 sacks of shreds since 1991, The Guardian reports. The team estimated that at …

    Public Sector 10 May 2007, 13:41

  • Banks put customers in Swift Catch-22

    'Please treat my data with disrespect'

    Bank customers wanting to make international transactions are being asked to sign a waiver to allow their personal details and financial records to be scanned by US anti-terror investigators. The waivers put customers in the same Catch-22 European data protection officials found themselves in after it emerged that the US had …

    Law 10 May 2007, 13:45

  • Oral sex could be more dangerous than cigars

    Looks bad for Clinton either way

    Painstaking academic research indicates that promiscuous oral sex can carry a higher risk of throat cancer than smoking or boozing. A report based on a hospital study of 100 oropharyngeal cancer sufferers and 200 controls, carried out by Johns Hopkins scientists, appeared today in the New England Journal of Medicine. In it, the …

    Biology 10 May 2007, 14:09

  • George Lucas bitch slaps Spider-Man 3

    Spews venom

    Star Wars creator George Lucas has slammed Spider-Man 3 as vacuous. The latest instalment of the franchise has received mixed reviews from critics, although it's fared slightly better with cinema goers (rating 6.7 on IMDb compared to 7.8 for Spider-Man 2). But it's tempting to think the bearded one's outburst has more to do …

    Entertainment 10 May 2007, 14:11

  • Amnesty backs Google shareholders

    Pressure group applauds pressure

    A Google shareholder has called for the search giant to clean up its act, a move that's been welcomed by Amnesty International. An advisor to five public pension funds in New York has filed a shareholder proposal calling on Google to adopt a stronger anti-censorship stance. Google has been widely criticised for bowing to …

    Financial News 10 May 2007, 14:34

  • HDS gets new UK channel salesman

    Indirect ambitions

    Storage vendor Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has taken on a new UK sales boss with the aim of increasing its stake in the indirect channel market. Neil Evans, who previously ran his own technology consultancy business, SolutionsMTD Limited, will head up all indirect business in the UK, which includes value-added distributors and …

    Channel Register 10 May 2007, 15:09

  • UK ID card costs climb £600m in six months

    £5.5bn and counting

    The government's cost estimate for its identity card scheme has risen at least £600m in the six months since its last disclosure. According to the May 2007 Identity Cards Scheme Cost report, at last count the project was going to cost £4.9bn between October 2006 and October 2016 (although we reported the estimate was £5.4bn). …

    Government 10 May 2007, 15:42

  • Intel swallows Itanic Java pill

    JavaOne All roads lead to Sun

    It's a tough job. Convincing Java developers that any hardware vendor - let alone Intel in the wake of roadmap set backs - has any immediate relevance. It's an even harder task sidestepping Intel's thorny heritage with Sun Microsystems over its 64-bit Itanium chipset. And, it's all made harder by the fact Sun Microsystems …

    Servers 10 May 2007, 15:43

  • Microsoft opens kimono for 'Katmai' SQL Server

    Marks datebook at BI Conference

    Microsoft's first-ever BI Conference kicked off this morning in Seattle with a keynote that promised the next version of SQL Server will hit the streets sometime next year. Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division outlined/reiterated Microsoft's strategy for "delivering pervasive BI and performance management" …

    Developer 10 May 2007, 15:55

  • Mio motors latest satnav kit to UK

    Four new product launches

    First shown at CeBIT, as we reported a couple of months back, Mio's new satnavs, the C320, C520 and C520t are now available in the UK along with a new variation, the C320t. All of them sport a 4.3in widescreen display and split-screen view. Mio C320 satnav The 2cm-deep devices also come equipped with a docking cradle and a …

    reghardware 10 May 2007, 16:06

  • Red Hat sees GOD

    Summit Turns out it's a web service

    Red Hat confused world+dog yesterday by dishing out two, new desktop visions, while trying to catch both projects with the same glove. So, let's try and clean up the mess. On the visionary front, Red Hat has started discussing something called the Online Desktop. Red Hat claims that this software will rewrite the client market …

    Operating Systems 10 May 2007, 16:53

  • Give people back more time and they will buy your IPTV - Microsoft

    IPTV Times

    Research conducted by Screen Digest for Microsoft suggests that there is a target audience of around 230 million people that might consider buying into IPTV or another pay TV service in seven top TV countries, and the software giant reckons that 75 million of them say they would switch TV suppliers if they have the right …

    Telecoms 10 May 2007, 18:27

  • Red Hat RHXes out to open source partners

    Summit Let's get rich together

    Red Hat has, at long last, rolled out a broad partner program around bringing better support for business software running on its operating system. The software maker today turned on RHX (Red Hat Exchange). At its most basic level, RHX is a web site that lists partner software, product details and customer feedback. Looking at …

    Applications 10 May 2007, 18:33

  • Spike Lee, Babelgum do the Right Thing

    Babelgum shunts user generated crap

    Joost and Babelgum are two new start-ups that deliver TV-quality streaming to broadband-connected PCs. They're so similar it's hard not to think of them as Tweedlegum and Tweedlejoost. But already there are signs which one has the better prospects of success. While Joost came out in a blaze of New Age Web 2.0 gwana-gwana * - in …

    Music and Media 10 May 2007, 18:50

  • Migration tool builder eyes up broader market

    DW Blog Celona plans to move beyond telco roots

    With release 3.1 of its Celona migration tool, Celona Technologies claims to be a step nearer providing complete automation of data migration projects. At the same time, it plans to extend its patent migration technology to a broader business market. Celona's migration tool was originally built to support complex data …

    Storage 10 May 2007, 18:56

  • Horizon sees sunny skies ahead in 2007

    Buoyant UK and Ireland markets

    Horizon Technology, the Irish-owned reseller, expects 2007 results to be in line with market expectations. Speaking at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday, chairman Samir Naji told shareholders that the board was pleased with the group's performance during the first quarter. "The IT market in both the UK and …

    Channel Register 10 May 2007, 19:08

  • HP Neoview comes out to play

    Long-term competitor for Teradata and IBM

    Hewlett-Packard sort of announced its data warehouse appliance (if that is the right term—see later) last autumn. The company refers to this as a soft launch in the sense that they didn't talk much about it except to a few beta clients. Well, now it has had its hard launch (which is officially version 2.0) and the company is …

    Servers 10 May 2007, 19:41

  • Lenovo pays Microsoft $1.3bn for software

    The more the merrier

    Lenovo will pay up to $1.3bn over the next year to pre-install Microsoft software on its computers. Of course, it is not really doing the paying: it is a Microsoft OEM and so is reselling passing the costs on, along with a little margin for itself, to its customers. So the more it pays Microsoft, the more it is making in PC …

    Channel Register 10 May 2007, 20:24

  • NEC storage line plays its scales

    Online upgrades with modular design

    NEC is rolling out a line of modular storage arrays that scale from gigabytes to a petabyte without going offline. The D-series can scale from 219GB to 1.15PB capacity, using different hard drive classes in the same enclosure. The arrays can also be upgraded from 2GB to 128GB of memory and four to sixty-four 4GB/sec Fibre …

    Storage 10 May 2007, 20:35

  • Acer sues suppliers over HP patent lawsuit

    You want to fight me, buddy? There's me buddy. Go fight him

    Acer is suing a posse of suppliers to share the pain of patent infringement suits filed by rival PC maker Hewlett-Packard. The company confirmed today its US subsidiary has filed complaints against electronics contract manufacturer Hon Hai, notebook maker Quanta and Acer's former manufacturing arm, Wistron, to jointly face HP's …

    Channel Register 10 May 2007, 21:12

  • Microsoft misses performance and scale goals with Viridian – Microsoft

    One month trip from gloating to tears

    Viridian has gone on the Redmond Diet with Microsoft today ripping some of its most exciting planned features out of the virtualization software. In April, Microsoft's GM in charge of Viridian Mike Neil revealed that the company would have to delay the software's beta release from the first half of 2007 to the second half. The …

    Servers 10 May 2007, 21:47

  • Red Hat and Sybase needle Oracle with appliance

    Summit Bundlerrific

    Red Hat couldn't resist jabbing Oracle during its Summit user conference. The software maker today announced a deal with Sybase to create so-called database appliances. Think not of typical "server appliances" here where simple software is wrapped around near commodity hardware. In the Red Hat/Sybase case, we're talking about a …

    Developer 10 May 2007, 23:05

  • iPods 'mess with pacemakers'

    Granny loves her iPod, bless her - OH MY GOD!!

    iPods have joined late-opening restaurants and children playing on old people's lawns on the list of things that can make pacemakers go haywire. A new study, presented today to a meeting of heart specialists by a 17-year-old high school student, suggests that the music-playing device can interfere with the electromagnetic …

    Mobile 10 May 2007, 23:31