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20th August 2007 Archive

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  • Xbox 360 Elite Australian debut date confirmed

    Australian games buffs will be able to get their mitts on the Xbox 360 Elite on 30 August, Microsoft confirmed late last week. It also said HDMI would become standard across the Xbox 360 range later in the year. The all-black Elite is the first Xbox to incorporate an HDMI port. So too will the Halo 3-branded limited-edition …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 04:13

  • iPod Nano revamp to see widescreen display?

    Standard iPod to 'gain iPhone looks'

    Apple is said to be preparing to revamp its iPod Nano music player with a third-generation case design that not only introduces a new colour scheme but also sacrifices the gadget's skinny looks to add a video-friendly widescreen display. According to a 9to5Mac.com report, moles in China claim the new Nano will be offered in …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 04:37

  • LG shines a light over its U990 handset

    Reach for your shades

    LG looks set to dazzle consumers later this year with yet another glossy mobile phone. The U990 will feature a five-megapixel camera and is 3G-enabled, with HSDPA high-speed download technology. LG's U990: heading for the 3 network The U990's camera has a manually controlled digital zoom that is adjusted via a dial around …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 04:50

  • AMD's dual-core Athlon 64 line hits 3.2GHz

    Chip family goes mobile too

    AMD has today rolled out a fresh top-of-the-line mainstream desktop dual-core processor and - bizarrely - extended the same Athlon 64 X2 family into the mobile market. The new desktop part is the 6400+, clocked at 3.2GHz, fitted with 2MB of L2 cache and priced at $251, as previously forecast. The 6400+ is available to buy in …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 05:33

  • Intel driver tweak adds vertex shaders to old IGPs

    Vertex Shader 3.0 support in hardware

    Intel has quietly rolled out support for hardware acceleration of Vertex Shader 3.0 calculations in a range of its integrated graphics chipsets, including the Q963, G965, 945G and the mobile GM965. The release of the new Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) driver, version 14.31, came earlier this month and was prompted by …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 07:14

  • Students get lecture on ID crime

    Info office issues Personal Information Toolkit

    New guidance from the information commissioner could help students avoid identity theft at university. Students returning to university are being urged to protect themselves from identity theft. The advice comes from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which warns students to safeguard their personal information, such …

    ID 20 Aug 2007, 09:09

  • Product safety: don't let a crisis turn into a disaster

    How to prepare for the worst

    With Mattel recalling 18 million toys and Cadbury on the receiving end of a conviction for making and distributing unsafe chocolate, many manufacturers will be looking again at what they can do in the event of a product safety problem. What should a company do when faced with a product safety crisis? How can it handle the …

    Channel Register 20 Aug 2007, 09:29

  • Is Chernobyl behind academic slump in Sweden?

    Boffins demonstrate statistical link

    It is 21 years since the nuclear plant at Chernobyl went bang, and the extent of the damage wrought by the radioactive fallout is still becoming clear. According to a report in Chemistry World, US researchers have discovered that Swedish children who were in the womb at the time of the accident might have been mentally damaged …

    Biology 20 Aug 2007, 09:37

  • Natalie Portman: Attack of the Film Fans

    Secures 'most unconvincing on-screen chemistry' title

    Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen have been voted "the movie couple with the most unconvincing on-screen chemistry" for failing to spark in Attack of the Clones. The poll of 3,000 film buffs, carrried out by cinema ad outfit Pearl & Dean, also honoured Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez for Gigli with second place, while the …

    Entertainment 20 Aug 2007, 09:39

  • Patch Tuesday update triggered Skype outage

    Mass reboot exposes VoIP network stability bug

    Skype has blamed last week's prolonged outage on the effects of Microsoft's Patch Tuesday. The latest security update from Microsoft required a system reboot. The effect of so many machines rebooting and subsequently trying to log onto the Skype VoIP network triggered system instability and a prolonged outage of almost two days …

    VoIP 20 Aug 2007, 09:44

  • Malaysia honours piracy-busting mutts

    Medals for Lucky and Flo

    Malaysia has honoured Lucky and Flo - the pirate DVD-sniffing black Labradors whose olfactory skills have led to 26 arrests and the seizure of $6m in hooky discs, Reuters reports. The celebrity pair were trained by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), and subsequently deployed in Malaysia where they quickly ran to …

    Entertainment 20 Aug 2007, 09:46

  • RSA acquisition of Tablus logical move for EMC

    Adds data discovery and classification

    RSA, the security division of EMC, announced recently its intent to acquire Tablus Inc., a provider of data loss prevention solutions based in San Mateo, California. Tablus is privately-held; further details of the transaction are not being disclosed. The Tablus solution will add data discovery and classification, monitoring …

    Channel Register 20 Aug 2007, 09:53

  • Anyone care to wager on Russian politics?

    Putin still in the running, say the oddsmakers

    The high-stakes game that is Russian politics is now available for all to play online. The odds on who will be Russia's next President have come out the internet, and, perhaps not too surprisingly, Vladimir Putin is still one of the favorites, despite a constitutional prohibition against a third term. According to Reuters, …

    Bootnotes 20 Aug 2007, 10:14

  • BT storms Basilica for channel goodness

    More ways to flog kit to SMEs

    BT's small business division has ponied up an undisclosed sum to acquire another IT firm as part of its plan to drive unified communications downmarket. It has bought Basilica Computing, an SME provider based in Hertfordshire. Basilica resells kit and software from Microsoft, Cisco, HP and VMware, among others. It employs …

    Small Biz 20 Aug 2007, 10:24

  • 'Mystery ailment' smites Saudi camels

    Hundreds dead

    A "mystery ailment" last week claimed the lives of over 200 camels in Saudi Arabia's Dawasir Valley, Reuters reports. The agriculture ministry confirmed the deaths of 232 animals over four days, although owners say the real figure is much higher. Officials dismissed an infectious disease as the cause, fingering "animal feed …

    Biology 20 Aug 2007, 10:25

  • Vauxhall recalls self-combusting Corsas

    ABS fault provokes 'thermal incidents'

    Vauxhall will re-recall over 200,000 Corsas suffering a fault in the anti-lock brake system which can provoke spontaneous combustion, the Evening Standard reports. The company last March recalled model Cs, Tigra Bs and Combo Cs with registrations beginning 53, 54 or 55, having deduced that water penetration into the cars' ABS …

    Bootnotes 20 Aug 2007, 10:57

  • Dwarf superglues todger to hoover

    'The most embarrassing moment of my life'

    Staff at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh battled for an hour to disconnect the penis of Captain Dan The Demon Dwarf from a hoover after the diminutive Fringe performer inadvertantly superglued it to the vacuum cleaner's "attachment". According to the Evening Standard, the hoover forms part of Captain Dan's Circus Of Horrors …

    Entertainment 20 Aug 2007, 11:59

  • Boeing touts feeble Hummer-mounted raygun

    Flee, Abdul, flee! Already I feel uncomfortably warm!

    US aerospace giant Boeing has announced plans to demonstrate laser energy weapons for battlefield use within months. Speaking at the annual Space and Missile Defense Conference in Alabama last week, unnamed company officials revealed the plans to journalists from Aviation Week. Boeing is already a leader in the field of …

    Government 20 Aug 2007, 12:04

  • Storm worm authors switch tactics

    Bogus updates and racy pics fuel botnet

    The hackers behind the Storm worm attack are switching tactics. The malware infected thousands of computers in January by promising recipients information about the storms ravaging Europe at the time in email messages that directed potential marks towards a malware-infested website. Malicious code on the site attempted to …

    Security 20 Aug 2007, 12:07

  • Europe finally granted Xbox price cut

    About time too

    Microsoft has finally treated European gamers to a slice of American-style price-cutting on its Xbox range. European gamers should be able to get their hands on the ‘standard’ model for £30 less and save £20 on the cost of the Core model, when the cuts kick in later this week. The price-cuts will take effect on 24 August, …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 12:26

  • Hurricane Dean menaces Jamaica, sends shuttle packing

    NASA keeping its eyes peeled

    The space shuttle Endeavour is heading home a day early, as concern rises that Hurricane Dean, currently battering the south coast of Jamaica, could turn North and threaten mission control in Houston. NASA said that although it could get a skeleton mission control crew to Cape Canaveral, it would rather bring Endeavour in …

    Space 20 Aug 2007, 12:35

  • Sensible, practical anti-terror tech shocker

    Federal boffins deploy 'DON'T PANIC' machine

    US federal boffins reckon they could be on the track of an easy-to-use kit or sensor which could tell if people had been exposed to nerve gas or other chemical weapons. This would allow medics dealing with victims of possible future terror attacks to separate out genuine casualties from the swarms of "worried well." Principal …

    Biology 20 Aug 2007, 12:51

  • Canon launches barrage of SLR cameras

    What will you be looking through this Christmas?

    Canon has beefed-up its professional EOS SLR range with the introduction of the 21.1-megapixel 1Ds and the 10.1-megapixel 40D. It has also unveiled a digital camera for serious shooters or cash-strapped professionals, the 12.1-megapixel G9. The 1Ds model sports a lighter-weight magnesium alloy body and allows users to make …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 13:24

  • 3 launches tenner-a-month data

    Cheapest UK tariff

    Mobile operator 3 is set to offer budget mobile data to UK punters. According to reports, three new tariffs will see it match the most attractive offerings from T-Mobile, starting from £10 a month. That's the same price that Demon set when it launched its pioneering consumer dial-up internet offering, back in 1993. At £10 a …

    Mobile 20 Aug 2007, 13:31

  • Is Hannspree winding us up with watch TV?

    A telly that changes with the weather

    Hanspree has launched its latest souped up TV - at least we think it’s a TV. The screen incorporates several unconventional gadgets that can only be a distraction from whatever is being displayed on its 12.1in LCD screen. The HANNStime.square The HANNStime.square's LCD display has two retractable ‘arms’ on either side, one …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 14:35

  • Software tool promises 1-click colonialism

    Congratulations - you've lost your right to be paid!

    The music industry has a long and shameful history of robbing black artists of their rights. Now along comes some new software that will help speed up the job. Think of it as a sort of 1-Click "non-payment" system. Liblicense is a project that Creative Commons hopes to integrate with MIT Media Lab's OLPC, or One Laptop Per …

    Law 20 Aug 2007, 14:47

  • Dolly Parton's theme park shells out for more silicon

    And, I-I-I-I-I-I will always track you

    Splash Country, a water park attached to Dollywood in Knoxville, Tennessee, is offering punters the chance to carry "Sunny Money" in the form of RFID-equipped wristbands as tickets and wallets. It's basically a form of pre-payment voucher. Punters can load up their wristbands with cash then spend it at various snack and …

    Networks 20 Aug 2007, 14:51

  • Toshiba expands its constellation of Satellites

    It's all about U

    Toshiba has expanded its Satellite laptop range with the U300 and Pro U300 models, targeting home and mobile workers looking for a little aesthetic flare while carrying out their otherwise mundane computing tasks. Both feature Intel's Centrino Duo CPU and GM965 Express chipset as standard. Bizarrely, the Pro only has 512MB of …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 15:16

  • BAE demos DSL-esque military radio protocol

    New pipe using existing gear

    Noted arms firm BAE Systems has announced lab success for its effort to use jet fighter data radios as Wi-Fi IP networking kit. The current NATO standard for military data exchange is Link 16, a protocol set up originally to let military ships and aircraft exchange their tactical battle plots in near-real-time. Thus, for …

    Data Networking 20 Aug 2007, 15:22

  • Pirated Simpsons movie traced to phone

    Owner arrested

    A man has been arrested in Australia on suspicion of filming The Simpsons Movie in a cinema on his mobile phone and uploading it to the internet. The unnamed 21-year-old from Sydney has been charged with copyright theft and could face up to five years in jail. An illegal copy of the hit movie was available on a streaming …

    Law 20 Aug 2007, 15:25

  • Tilera throws 64-core meshy chip at video and security tasks

    Hot Chips Faster than a Xeon, smaller than a bread box

    The multi-core chip revolution advanced this week with the emergence of Tilera - a start-up using so-called mesh processor designs to go after the networking and multimedia markets. The Silicon Valley-based start-up's first product links together 64 RISC-like cores running at up to 1.0GHz. The real magic, however, stems from …

    PCs & Chips 20 Aug 2007, 15:38

  • Google throws cash around China

    Hides American roots

    The world's most popular search engine doesn't like playing second fiddle in the world's most populous country. As it struggles to keep pace with the home-grown Baidu in the Chinese search market, Google has invested in "four or five" China-based web sites, including a user-driven destination called Tianya.cn. Last week, Kai-Fu …

    Music and Media 20 Aug 2007, 18:43

  • Cisco and Microsoft vow to fight nice

    Rival but compatible products on the way

    Microsoft and Cisco may be headed for a market rivalry, but the companies vowed today that their competing products will work together well. In their first public discussion together, Cisco chief John Chambers and Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said that while the companies will compete, they will continue to collaborate in …

    Data Networking 20 Aug 2007, 18:48

  • Spanish TV turns Wiki-hoaxer

    Gonzo 2.0

    The Spanish "silly season" has brought out the gonzo element of the local media, with two TV stations vandalising Wikipedia. State-owned TVE2 changed an entry on John Lennon to say that he was fond of paella. Antenna 3 altered the date of Elvis Presley's date from 16 August 1977 to 16 August 2007 in the Spanish edition of …

    Bootnotes 20 Aug 2007, 19:41

  • PC Mall buys Sarcom on the cheap

    Enterprise play

    PC Mall, the California-based direct marketing reseller, is to acquire Sarcom - "one of (America's) largest independent IT solution providers" - for $55m. More or less: some $19.6m of the purchase price is contingent on net assets declared by Sarcom. So the money could move up or down, depending on what the auditors find out …

    Channel Register 20 Aug 2007, 20:41

  • Brocade securities probe hits former CFO

    Looking the other way? That's a paddlin'

    The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has smacked former Brocade CFO Michael Byrd with eight counts of fraud related to backdating stock options. The commission alleges that Byrd ignored red flags indicating the company's corporate executives were tooling around with the options. Charges filed today in federal …

    Financial News 20 Aug 2007, 20:44

  • Customers can sue AT&T, after all

    Wireless contract 'unconscionable'

    A federal court in San Francisco has decided that AT&T's wireless contract is "unconscionable". On Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit came out against AT&T's "arbitration clause," which forbids wireless customers from bringing class-action suits against the company. Arbitration clauses are quite common in …

    Mobile 20 Aug 2007, 22:14

  • Epson launches 'world's first' white LED scanner

    Take a copy

    Epson has launched the world's first charge-coupled device (CCD) scanner to use a white LED as a light source. It also claimed the V500 scanner can be used within one second of it being switched on. Epson's V500: world first The manufacturer claimed that basing the V500 on a white LED light source, instead of the more …

    Reg Hardware 20 Aug 2007, 23:14