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21st May 2007 Archive

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  • Apple gets go ahead for iPhone launch

    Slams 'false rumours' of delays

    Apple's iPhone has been given the green light to take a bite out of the US handset market as the firm bit back at false rumours that sent shares plummeting. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given its seal of approval to Apple's iPhone, clearing the way for the handset to hit the US market next month. "The …

    Mobile 21 May 2007, 09:02

  • 'Data storm' blamed for nuclear plant shutdown

    Malfunctioning control device causes fatal spike in traffic

    The US House of Representative's Committee on Homeland Security called this week for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to further investigate the cause of excessive network traffic that shut down an Alabama nuclear plant. During the incident, which happened last August at Unit 3 of the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant, …

    Security 21 May 2007, 09:15

  • Norman Tebbit to play Iggy Pop

    Poll result The people have spoken

    It's official: by overwhelming popular demand, Norman Tebbit will replace Elijah Wood as Iggy Pop in forthcoming biopic The Passenger. To recap, we last week ran a poll to decide a suitable alternative to the Hobbit taking the lead in the $8m project, slated for release in 2008. To be honest, we weren't convinced that Wood …

    Entertainment 21 May 2007, 09:36

  • Lawsuit targets Apple over laptop display dithering claims

    PCs now better Macs than MacBooks are?

    Apple has found itself at the receiving end of a lawsuit alleging it played fast and loose with the way it promoted the abilities of the displays it builds into its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks. The complaint claims said screens aren't up to scratch and that Apple knew as much when it said they were. Filed by two San …

    Reg Hardware 21 May 2007, 09:38

  • Gorilla rampages through Dutch zoo

    Four injured in cafeteria carnage

    A 400lb silverback male gorilla has injured four people after escaping from his compound at Rotterdam's Blijdorp zoo, the Telegraph reports. Bokito climbed the wall of his enclosure, crossed a moat, grabbed 57-year-old Petronella Yvonne de Horde and dragged her through a cafeteria, "sending chairs and tables flying as he went …

    Biology 21 May 2007, 09:39

  • US Marine murder trial will use Google Earth

    Prosecution witness to make 'computerised map'

    The trial of a US Marine accused of murdering an Iraqi man will make use of Google Earth, according to a ruling last week. Corporal Trent Thomas is one of eight Marines accused of killing ex-policeman Hashim Ibrahim Awad in April last year. Technology issues have already figured in hearings regarding the slaying, as prosecution …

    Law 21 May 2007, 09:46

  • British Film Institute's Mediatheque presents a great opportunity

    If it wasn't for the rights holders

    Every so often one is privileged to bump into an IT application which prompts the response: "yes, that is damned good". One such, in my opinion, is the Mediatheque inside the British Film Institute (BFI) building in London's South Bank complex. What is a "Mediatheque"? For anyone who is a straight forward film buff or fan of …

    Developer 21 May 2007, 09:56

  • Zeus virtually ports traffic manager to Windows

    Wrapped app conceals its Penguin nature via Virtual Server

    Load balancing specialist Zeus Technology has ported its ZXTM traffic manager to Windows - by the simple expedient of wrapping its Linux software up as a Microsoft Virtual Server package. The wrapped app also includes management tools that make it look just like native Windows software, said Zeus product manager Owen Garrett …

    Storage 21 May 2007, 09:58

  • Microsoft vouchers undercut patent claims

    No best before date on Novell vouchers

    Novell's deal with Microsoft (on behalf of its customers, of course) could end up benefiting everyone in the open source community after all, thanks to a missing expiration date and a nifty little clause in GPLv3. Microsoft announced last week that it holds exactly 235 patents which are infringed by Linux source code. It wasn …

    Channel Register 21 May 2007, 10:18

  • Fujitsu 'first' with single-chip H.264 video processor

    Fujitsu has taken the wraps off what it claims is the first ever single-chip video decoder capable of numver-crunching the H.264 codec at HD resolutions. H.264 is part of both the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD next-gen optical disc specifications and it's the basis for many HDTV broadcast services around the world, so decoding H. …

    Reg Hardware 21 May 2007, 10:27

  • Symbian malware escapes Russia

    Cash from chaos

    Malware profiteers have created a trio of smartphone Trojans that send out premium-rate SMS messages from infected Symbian S60 devices. The Trojans, all members of the Viver strain, pose as utility programs for Symbian phones and have been uploaded to at least one popular file sharing site, anti-virus firm F-Secure reports. …

    Security 21 May 2007, 10:40

  • Exploding curry menaces 747

    £20k of damage in microwave mishap

    Forget binary liquid explosives, a British Airways stewardess has shown how it's really done by popping her curry ready meal into a 747's club class microwave, with explosive results. The spicy blast - caused by the supermarket-bought nosh's inability to withstand the might of the double-strength airborne microwave - provoked …

    Bootnotes 21 May 2007, 10:43

  • Griffin shrinks iTrip

    It's Griffin's smallest iTrip yet: a dinky FM transmitter designed to fit the shape of Apple's iPod Nano but is as happy connected to any other dockable iPod. Like all iTrips past and present, the iTrip Pocket sends out your songs on the FM band. Assuming you can find a clear space - not easy in Britain's crowded airwaves …

    Reg Hardware 21 May 2007, 11:12

  • Sony announces 80GB PS3

    But only in Korea

    Sony is indeed preparing an 80GB PlayStation 3, the company confirmed today, but so far it's only due to go on sale in South Korea. A posting on the consumer electronics giant's Korean website today reveals the local version of the next-gen games console will sport the 80GB hard drive that first appeared in a US Federal …

    Reg Hardware 21 May 2007, 11:34

  • LG unwraps dual-display Chocolate laptop

    LG announced its Z1 Dual LCD laptop in February. At the time, it said it would announce the two-screen machine's availability at a later date. Three months on, it has at last brought the laptop to market, though it's failed to avail itself of new processors released in the meantime. LG's Z1 Dual LCD laptop: now with added …

    Reg Hardware 21 May 2007, 11:58

  • RIM BlackBerry Curve 8300

    Review Dial C for Consumer

    There's a new addition to the BlackBerry line up, to slot neatly in between the Pearl and 8800. The Curve 8300 features a full QWERTY keyboard, but without making the unit overly large. It's certainly more consumer-focused than the 8800, but that doesn't mean it can't turn its hand to business when the time comes. The …

    Reg Hardware 21 May 2007, 12:23

  • Phoenix maintains gentle ascent

    Continuity business

    The disaster recovery business has been keeping Phoenix IT Group heading skyward. Revenues were up overall by 16.3 per cent to £126.7m, which included five months of sales from Servo Computer Services, the SME IT services and product sales business that Phoenix acquired in November 2006. Excluding the Servo figures, "the …

    Servers 21 May 2007, 12:57

  • Police raid ends allofmp3.com vouchers

    Put down your MP3s and come out with your hands up

    Police have shut down an online voucher system allegedly used by Russian music download website allofmp3.com to get around the recent removal of its card processing facilities in the UK and Europe. An unnamed 25-year-old man, allegedly the UK-based European agent for allofmp3.com, was arrested under the Fraud Act following a …

    Music and Media 21 May 2007, 13:00

  • Cars could run on aluminium, say US boffins

    'Violent poof' in Purdue lab inspires scientist

    US engineering boffins believe they have found a way to make existing cars run on aluminium pellets. The process involves generating hydrogen from water onboard the vehicle, which removes the need to store hydrogen in a tank. Fuel-tank design is one of the main challenges facing hydrogen car designers, and at present involves …

    Physics 21 May 2007, 13:10

  • Negroponte slams Intel over OLPC competition

    Won't somebody think of the children?

    Nicholas Negroponte, the man behind the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has hit out at chipmaker Intel, saying the firm should be "ashamed of itself" for mucking around with OLPC's plans to get affordable laptop computers to children in developing countries. Negroponte says Intel is selling its competing low-cost kiddie …

    PCs & Chips 21 May 2007, 13:17

  • US and UK unite for $100m telescope

    Atacama, here we come

    Scientists in the UK and the US have joined forces to build a new $100m, 25 metre infrared telescope in the high Chilean desert. The latest addition to the team, the University of Colorado at Boulder, signed on late last week. The Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope, or CCAT, is designed to work alongside the proposed Atacama …

    Space 21 May 2007, 13:20

  • Liverpool police get mini-Black Helicopter

    Cyber-copters pack whisper mode, nightsight CCTV

    The era of Robocop - and perhaps of the surveillance society - came a step nearer today with the announcement that Merseyside plods have started trialling a flying police robot. The scally sky-patrolman, unlike military kill-bots such as the US Reaper, isn't intended for any active role. It is purely an observation platform, …

    Law 21 May 2007, 14:28

  • Alltel in multi-billion dollar buyout

    TPG Capital and GSCP tag-team mobile operator

    TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners (GSCP) have agreed a deal to purchase US mobile operator Alltel in a $27.5bn deal. The agreement will see the investment firms acquire all outstanding Alltel stock for $71.50 per share, which represents a 23 percent premium on Alltel's closing price prior to the first time it was …

    Financial News 21 May 2007, 14:42

  • Mobile TV will reach 244 million by 2011, says report

    Huge leap expected in 2009

    TV enabled handsets will reach a staggering 244 million devices by 2011, according to a new report. This is almost double the number previously forecast, and was reached by a detailed look into the likely mobile TV launch dates and the uptake rate expected in 55 countries. The report was published in the US by Multimedia …

    Mobile 21 May 2007, 14:51

  • China will head for the moon this year

    Space racing begins in earnest

    China's National Space Administration (NSA) is planning to send a probe to the moon later this year, according to reports. The state-controlled Xinhau news agency reports that Sun Laiyan, director of the NSA, was speaking at Beijing Jiaotong University. He said: "The moon probe project is the third milestone in China's space …

    Space 21 May 2007, 15:14

  • Thus results paint rosier picture

    We'll make a profit this year

    Telecoms company Thus, spun off from Scottish Power in 1999, pulled in revenues of £532.7m in the year ended 31 March 2007. While this was 52 per cent up on the previous 12 months, the firm still managed an operating loss of £9.5m. Operating losses during the previous year were £11.6m, so things are going in the right …

    Networks 21 May 2007, 15:29

  • Italians sink Ellison's America's Cup bid

    'Hurts big time' admits BMW Oracle team

    Larry Ellison's ambitions to lift the America's Cup have sunk beneath the Med after his BMW Oracle Racing Team went down 5-1 to Italian sail worriers Luna Rossa Challenge in the waters off Valencia, InfoWorld reports. BMW Oracle were soundly beaten in the best-of-nine semis of the Louis Vuitton Cup, despite the on-board …

    Applications 21 May 2007, 15:35

  • Profit margins sway the mobile hit parade

    Pay to play

    Mobile operators have been crowned as the future kingmakers of digital music so many times, the coronet must be getting pretty greasy by now. But how do operators choose what goes on the coveted, and extremely limited promotion space on a mobile music site's home screen? Richard Wheeler, head of music partnerships for Orange, …

    Networks 21 May 2007, 15:40

  • Europe's mission to Mars hangs in balance

    Key meeting tomorrow

    Top boffins from the European Space Agency (ESA) are to meet in Paris this week to vote on plans for a European mission to Mars. The BBC reports that delegates will be asked to choose between two options: the original plan, and a scaled up, more expensive mission that would free the mission from reliance on American kit for …

    Space 21 May 2007, 15:46

  • Telelogic models SOA look

    Common touch

    Telelogic is updating its model-driven development suite for SOA, as part of a move to meet requirements of more "mainstream" IT users. The company today announced Telelogic Systems Architect for SOA, a "major update" to version 10.7 of its Systems Architect product, along with Tau 3.1, an update to its system design and …

    Developer 21 May 2007, 16:00

  • Norton's firewall not fiery enough

    Pegasus takes fright

    Users of Norton Personal Firewall have been urged to update their software following the discovery of a serious vulnerability in the security package. A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability involving ActiveX controls creates a means for hackers to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems, Symantec warns. The security …

    Security 21 May 2007, 16:05

  • IBM grills HP with 4.7GHz Power6-based box

    But BBQ starts in November

    IBM's protracted Power6 dance ended today with the revelation of a midrange server that shows blistering benchmark numbers. Big Blue has announced a revamped version of its p 570 system that can hold one to eight of the new 4.7GHz dual-core Power6 chips. When running the TPC benchmark, an eight-way version of the p 570 reached …

    Servers 21 May 2007, 17:01

  • Google and Salesforce.com, sitting in a tree

    A little bird told the WSJ

    The Wall Street Journal has a hunch that Salesforce.com and Google have plans to further team against mutual rival, Microsoft. An anonymous source familiar with the deal told the paper a new pact is expected to be announced in the next few weeks. The WSJ's inkling, however, runs disappointingly short of ink. The brief article …

    Financial News 21 May 2007, 18:38

  • MySpace to turn over sex-offender data after all

    The Complying Game

    Under growing pressure to do more to protect underage members, MySpace has agreed to give state authorities details about registered sex offenders known to have been users. The decision, announced Monday, resolves last week's standoff in which the News Corp.-owned site refused to turn over the data because law enforcement …

    Crime 21 May 2007, 19:56

  • Symantec and Huawei partner to secure and store China

    Joined at the venture

    Symantec and Huawei have concocted a rather fascinating arrangement to go after the security and storage markets in China. The vendors today revealed that they will, as rumored, create a joint venture to sell appliance-like systems based on Huawei's hardware and Symantec's software. Symantec tends to stay away from direct …

    Storage 21 May 2007, 22:58

  • EMC announces data protection house party

    Rocking with the VTL in the VIP costs you plenty

    EMC released a smörgåsbord of data protection products at the EMC World conference today, including a new virtual tape library line starting at *pinky to lip* one million dollars. Disk Library 6000 The company claims its EMC Disk Library (DL) 6000 line is the largest and fastest virtual tape library available on the market. …

    Storage 21 May 2007, 23:29

  • The Register takes the stand at Interop

    Site news Forsooth to the booth

    Interop, the mothership of all enterprise computing shows, touches down on Las Vegas tomorrow. And The Register is coming along for the ride. We have a small booth - no 884 - but as an uncontrolled circulation, freely available internet publication, we are a little light on things to actually exhibit. So we have decided in the …

    Site News 21 May 2007, 23:40